Caleb Williams has made quite the name for himself in recent years. After a record-breaking high school career at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., where he won Gatorade Football Player of the Year in 2018, Williams had top college programs clamoring for his signature. But only Lincoln Riley of the University of Oklahoma could get it, and when Riley left the Sooners for the USC Trojans, Williams was soon to follow. The rest, as they say, is history.
In one season at the University of Southern California, Williams won the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, AP College Football Player of the Year, and was named a unanimous All-American. And that was just one year. Imagine what he could do with four.
Williams' resume is hard to beat. But if anyone has a shot at besting him, it's his equally impressive girlfriend, Valery Orellana.
Who is Caleb Williams' Girlfriend, Valery Orellana?
The Heisman Trophy winner is purportedly dating Valery Orellana. Despite her boyfriend's fame, Orellana has largely remained out of the public eye. Don't let her lack of publicity fool you, though - she's far from your average college student.
According to her LinkedIn, Orellana is a Salvadoran-American from the DC, Maryland and Virginia area. She's currently a college student at UNC Chapel Hill, part of North Carolina's famed research triangle. The Spanish-fluent bi-lingual student is pursuing a degree from the UNC Chapel Hill Hussman School of Media and Journalism with a minor in business at the Kenan Flagler Business School. According to her own bio, she hopes to work in advertising and entertainment.
It's a good thing Caleb's building connections in the entertainment capital of the world - Los Angeles, California.
Extracurricularly speaking, Orellana is even more impressive. She's highly involved in community outreach, working as a member in various positions with the University of North Carolina's Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), where she's been the director of outreach for nearly a year. She also moonlights as a project manager for Beyond our Game, a non-profit aiming to empower student-athletes of color. And still, she's somehow found the time to co-found another non-profit with a similar mission called Evenin' Out the Playing Field.
And on top of all that - Miss Orellana is drop dead gorgeous, too. No wonder Caleb likes her.
While Orellana remains a pretty private person, she was spotted front row at a USC Trojans game in September 2022 possibly supporting Williams. And before Williams transferred from Oklahoma to USC, Deadspin noted that many fans suspected he could transfer to North Carolina simply for the fact that Orellana attended school there, in what was dubbed the "Girlfriend Transfer Portal Theory." That didn't happen, but it's safe to say Williams' career blossomed at USC.
Caleb Williams is Philanthropic, Too
Photo by Jordon Kelly/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
These two have a lot in common. Aside from being from the same geographical region, they both love sports, and they both love bringing people together. (There's nothing more powerful than sports for bringing people together, except for maybe money, music, power, and food.)
Williams is the founder of the Caleb Cares Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to "Inspire more superheroes to fight bullying so we can all realize that what makes us different is our superpower." The anti-bullying organization also focuses on empowering the youth and mental health awareness. According to the Caleb Cares website, the D.C. native, who is half African American and half Native American, is motivated by "the desire to strive for greatness and never meeting a moment too big." Williams has certainly manifested this credo in his life, both on and off the field.
His on-field accomplishments are well-known - in addition to those listed above, the 2021 Sports Illustrated No. 1 recruit and 2020 Elite 11 MVP launched himself into the spotlight during his freshman year at OU when he led the Sooners back from being down 28-7 against their biggest rivals, the Texas Longhorns, in the Red River Showdown, the biggest comeback in Oklahoma history. Williams has yet to relinquish the spotlight since.
But his star power extends beyond the field. Williams considers himself an investor, an entrepreneur, a collector, a philanthropist, and a social justice advocate. If Caleb Williams has proven anything in his life, it's that he's all these things and more, and there's no slowing down anytime soon. The NFL is on the horizon.
With Valery Orellana at his side, Caleb Williams is well positioned to lead a new generation of talent as one half of football's newest power couple with a heart.
