Celina in Paris: Greensboro native plans perfect dinner party for French reality show
The usually very talkative Celina Tolbert shares very few clues.
But the Southeast High School graduate, who stepped out of the corporate world to follow her passion and is now living in Paris, just finished a reality show competition.
And in it, she talks about Greensboro, a lot.
"Last year I said I wanted to do the things I was discouraged not to do or that people told me I couldn't do, and ever since I decided to try, things have been happening," Tolbert said.
The reality show, called "Un Dîner Presque Parfait," translates to "An Almost Perfect Dinner."
It is a dinner party competition show for amateur cooks and comes with gifts and a cash prize.
Since it is unavailable for streaming in the U.S., she plans to post real-time clips throughout the telecasts on her TikTok page, @celinaacoteddparis. Viewers will hear about her family's love for the Grasshoppers, where her dad celebrated his birthday in a box at First National Bank Field.
"Imagine the American TV 'Four Weddings' but instead it's five dinner parties," Tolbert said of the former, where participants judge each other's weddings for a chance to win a honeymoon.
Because of the fervor surround the 2026 FIFA World Cup, producers picked contestants representing Italy, Mexico, Canada, the United States, and the Ivory Coast.
"I can't say how it went, but I can say that I had a really good time," Tolbert said.
She is now doing exactly what she's dreamed of doing.
Tolbert arrived in France right out of college on a work visa, and like the lead character in the popular television comedy sitcom "Emily in Paris," without knowing the language.
She is now fully immersed as a multi-hyphenate social media content producer, writer, storyteller and actress.
"I was bullied as a kid and so I think that's why I stopped pursuing some of the things I wanted to do," said Tolbert, who was thankful for her high school choir and theater teachers, among others, who had been supportive.
She had her first onscreen appearance as a 14-year-old after convincing her parents to take her to the filming for a movie she'd read about in the newspaper, "Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure (2010)," starring Hayley Mills, who as a young actress played twins in the classic "The Parent Trap."
Her family all ended up with parts, but only her father was credited. He was "Man with Wanted Poster."
"So, I got my whole family in it, and they picked him to be someone who like, smacked a wanted poster on the wall, and wakes up the bad guys who are like sleeping," Tolbert said.
Parts in "Secrets in the Snow" in 2012 and "Turning Home" in 2015, followed, according to IMDb, the online industry database.
She would go on to college in Virginia, where she finished her degree in three years. She then took a job as an au pair in France as a way of traveling abroad and seeing more of the world, before eventually enrolling in school and earning a master's in fine arts at the University of London. Later, she met her French boyfriend, now husband.
After working in corporate social media marketing and freelancing as a ghostwriter for individuals and companies, she further leaned into her creative side and joined casting groups on social media, which shared opportunities.
A lot of it appears in content on her TikTok page, in which a post from last year garnered 9.5 million views on the playful "how to kiss the Victor Noir statue," which rests in a French cemetery. Legend, claims that kiss can help the individual find love or become fertile. In others she's walking through chateaus.
The latest includes a multi-part captivating story time on her real drama with TikTok's "biggest influencers in Paris."
She recalled a time when things were as drama-filled only on stage. Growing up, she performed with Community Theater of Greensboro and took part in City Arts (now called Creative Greensboro).
She recalled the influences of the late Stephen Hyers, the former managing director of Greensboro's City Arts Drama Center, which provided a variety of opportunities for young artists.
"I didn't even realize for a while that I was supposed to be paying to be part of a club that I was in," she said of Hyers simply wanting young people to have a space.
She recalls her first time as part of the "Wizard of Oz," which is Community Theater of Greensboro's signature production.
The reality competition she just wrapped has an international themed week, with Tolbert representing the United States.
The five-episode arc will be released the week of June 22nd, with her episode airing June 25th.
For the dinner parties, one of the amateur cooks hosts the others each night and then vote on the best dinner party. The host must set a dress code and culinary theme.
Tolbert can say that for her dinner party, the menu was called "Made in Greensboro."
"I wore a Greensboro Grasshoppers jersey, used Carolina BBQ sauce, taught everyone how to clog like I learned at The Barn Dance in Julian, and introduced everyone to southern hospitality," Tolbert said.
She's working on other projects that will soon air that she can't talk about, but she's also auditioning for mini-series, very short videos, that are shot vertically to watch on cell phones that would bring her back temporarily to North Carolina.
Her dream is to book a period piece, like "Bridgerton."
Her "can do" attitude also has her making other opportunities for herself. Such as writing a horror movie in which a group of influencers head to a brand trip at a French chateau for a weekend, and the question is who will arrive back out of the chateau at the end of the weekend.
"I really want to be in a horror movie so I'm writing my own horror movie," she said with a laugh. "Of course I wrote myself the lead part."
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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 9:43 AM.