First Wives Club: The low-down on Hazel’s fiancé

Mikhail Keize’s Nigel may have been an unexpected addition to the First Wives Club cast, but he has quickly become one of the show’s fan-favorite characters.

If you have been feeling like your own love-life is a little messier than you would prefer, the romantic entanglements of the First Wives Club ladies may be crazy enough to make you feel like you have it all figured out.

Take our leading lady, Hazel Rachelle (who is played by the talented Jill Scott), for instance.

She started season one with a cheating scandal and a very ugly divorce, just to turn around and announce her engagement to the much younger, Nigel only a season later.

The actor behind First Wives Club’s Nigel

And while (spoiler alert for the information to follow) things between Hazel and Nigel did not quite end with the ‘happily ever after’ that they expected, there is no denying that Mikhail Keize, who has portrayed this character so successfully for the past two seasons, has become a firm favorite among First Wives Club fans.

Outside of his work on First Wives Club, Keize has also appeared in shows like Hard Drive (which aired one season in 2021) and All the Queen’s Men (which is a BET+ Original series that premiered in 2021).

Keize also portrayed Nicholas in the 2020 short film, She Had to Ask.

Mikhail Keize’s run as Nigel on First Wives Club

Keize’s Nigel certainly popped into the First Wives Club narrative seemingly out of nowhere. But since he has now appeared in almost a dozen episodes (as of the end of season three) he has actually become one of the show’s most-regularly featured recurring cast members.

All of Keize’s appearances as Nigel in the series, so far, can be summarized as follows:

Did Mikhail Keize get along with the rest of the First Wives Club cast?

If you are a longtime First Wives Club fan, then you will know that Ryan Michelle Bathe’s unexpected departure from the show stirred up some questions about whether the cast is really as friendly as they appear on screen.

And while there is no real way to confirm or deny these rumors until someone from the cast speaks out, it does seem like Keize has nothing but respect and admiration for his main First Wives Club co-star, Jill Scott.

In fact, Keize took to Instagram in December 2022 to explain some of his season two journey and to shout out Scott, who he referred to as “legendary”, for helping to make this season such an experience for him.

Will Mikhail Keize return for another season?

There is no denying that Nigel and his Jamaican accent has absolutely taken the First Wives Club fandom by storm since he first appeared on-screen in the season two premiere episodes.

But, in reality, Nigel has not really appeared in the show since the “What Does It Take?” episode. And since things between him and Scott’s Hazel seem to be all resolved, it does not seem likely that we will be seeing more of Nigel in future episodes.

However, season four of First Wives Club has not even been officially announced yet, so there is certainly a lot of room for things to change.

What is next for Hazel and Khalil?

If you have not finished season three of First Wives Club yet, we suggest you do that now, before you read the spoilers which are about to follow.

But, if you are all caught up on all things First Wives Club, then you will already know that our favorite hot-shot record-label owner, Hazel, ended season three with yet another new man – her longtime on-and-off boo, Khalil.

And while their relationship had a very rocky start, things at Ladies First are going really well and Hazel even smoothed things over with Regina just in time for the credits to roll on season three.

So there is a distinct possibility that Hazel and Khalil will be taking the next step in their relationship quite soon.

And if the series does return for a fourth season, we may just get to watch Hazel walking down the aisle again, sometime in the future.