‘Married at First Sight’: Who Is Pastor Calvin Roberson?

Pastor Calvin Roberson from Lifetime's 'Married at First Sight' is an ordained minister and relationship expert.

by Megan Elliott

Published on February 12, 2020

2 min read

Getting married to someone you’ve never met isn’t an experience for the faint of heart. While sometimes magic happens, as Married at First Sight viewers know, the couples in these relationships don’t always get a happily ever after.

Still, plenty of people who are fed up with the conventional dating scene are willing to give it a try. Those adventurous souls are matched up with their future partners by a team of three relationship experts: Dr. Pepper Schwartz, Pastor Calvin Roberson, and Dr. Viviana Coles.

All three of these matchmakers have a lot of experience when it comes to figuring out what makes two people click. Schwartz has a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale, while Coles is a therapist. And then there’s Roberson, a pastor and marriage counselor.

Roberson is an ordained minister

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As Married at First Sight viewers likely know, Roberson is an ordained minister. He has a BA in Theology from Oakwood University and a Masters of Divinity from Andrews University. Today, he leads the congregation at Progression Church in Atlanta, which he founded in 2013.

Roberson’s interest in helping people build healthy marriages began long before his career on Married at First Sight. He and his wife Wendy even run a marriage coaching organization.

“I have always been involved in counseling from a church perspective with pastoral counseling,” he told Rolling Out in 2016. “What happened is once I got involved with that and started with the church I found that it became much more prevalent and I had a knack for it. People would come to me on different levels and ask for counseling and I would comply.”

‘Married at First Sight’ isn’t his only TV gig

While Roberson is best known for his gig on Married at First Sight, he’s appeared on a number of other reality TV shows, including Little Women Atlanta and Seven Year Switch, according to his IMDb bio.

He also lent his relationship expertise to the Lifetime series Bride & Prejudice: Forbidden Love. In the show, he helps three deeply-in-love couples whose family and friends don’t approve of their relationship.

He says everything you see on TV is real

Attraction can grow, just like ugliness can grow in a relationship. This is why we want couples to just spend time getting to know the person! Judging the gift only by the wrappings is extremely short-sighted and emotionally immature. #marriedatfirstsight
— Calvin Roberson (@CalvinRoberson) January 30, 2020

Reality TV viewers often wonder how much of what they see in an episode is real and how much has been scripted by producers. But Roberson says that in the case of Married at First Sight, what you see is 100% real.

“First, I wish they knew that everything they see is real,” he said in an interview with SoapDirt. “We don’t manufacture drama for TV. Also, I wish they knew how much we ardently protect any person, female or male, if we feel they’re being abused. We film hundreds of hours of footage and the majority is not seen on TV due to time constraints.”

“Married at First Sight is more than just a TV show or entertainment,” he added. “I sincerely believe we are changing the lives of those on the show as well as those who use the advice and exercises we give the couples. I believe we’re doing a good thing, and pray the viewers do as well.”