‘Reptile Royalty,’ which follows adventures of Fountain Valley zoo, returns for season 2

Jay Brewer recently got back from the “super wedding” of power couple Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in India.

Brewer, the founder and owner of the Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley, said he’s known Ambani for about 15 years. He got a taste of his own celebrity status while on the trip.

“I don’t really call myself a celebrity,” said Brewer, who has millions of followers on social media. “I never realized how well known I was until I walked around India. Even when I was all dressed up in my Indian stuff, you can’t get more camouflaged for me, and people were still like, ‘Can I get a photo with you? I love your videos.’”

Brewer hopes people also love his television show.

The second season of the Hulu series “Reptile Royalty,” a reality TV look at the day-to-day operations of his famous zoo, was released on July 19.

Sam Carter, a reptile handler, shows guests a Burmese python named Banana at the Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley on Monday.

(James Carbone)

The six episodes feature everyone from the Harlem Globetrotters to the Fountain Valley Fire Department, from comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias to internet personality Brent Rivera.

Brewer said he enjoyed working with all of them.

“Especially my age [59], when I was a kid, the Harlem Globetrotters were a big deal,” he said. “So to be able to let the animals perform with them was quite an experience, to say the least.”

At the middle of it all is Brewer, whose middle daughter Juliette is also prominently featured as the face of the Reptile Zoo’s Instagram and YouTube pages.

Mason Oh, 7, of Irvine, feeds a tortoise at the Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley on Monday.

(James Carbone)

One of the episodes in Season 2 features Jay and Juliette visiting Florida, where a motion-capture video turns them into animals.

“That’s like Disney stuff, right?” Jay Brewer said. “That’s over the top. They made a model of our shop, and we turned into reptiles and partied.”

Of course, “over the top” could describe Brewer’s antics fairly well as he runs a zoo with more than 100 species of reptiles, amphibians and arachnids.

On Monday, he entertained visitors as he grabbed an albino alligator named Coconut from her cage.

Vicki Hoffman, who lives in Anaheim, watched two grandchildren visiting from Idaho take a picture with Brewer. They first found out about the Roku series on the day of the trip and were no doubt going to stream it soon.

“They came to visit me here in Orange County, and they’ve seen all of his videos on YouTube,” Hoffman said of her grandkids. “Their stepdad has shown them all of Jay’s videos, so of course they’re following him and knew everything about him. I said, he’s not here in Orange County, and they said, ‘No, no, this is his Instagram. He’s at Prehistoric Pets!’

“It’s fascinating to me. I mean, I’ve lived in Orange County all my life and it’s my first time here.”

Jay Brewer, the founder of the Reptile Zoo, answers questions from visitors to the zoo on Monday.

(James Carbone)

Brewer, a lifelong Orange County resident who survived a rough childhood, first opened what was then called Pet Country in 1988. Two expansions later, the Reptile Zoo is now a 13,000-square-foot space.

Brewer is used to being a social media star but has also fit in well with the television medium. The TV show was first announced in early 2023 and debuted last summer.

He said the second season of “Reptile Royalty” flowed more smoothly than the first.

“I tell everyone to go and watch the TV show because I feel like it has a more rounded view of what we do,” Brewer said. “They did a really good job in showing the reality of what goes on. Social media has a tendency of showing a shocking moment, and that goes viral, then they think that’s all you do, these viral moments.

“There’s just so many cool things that we really do. I get to impact little kids, I get to impact adults. I am shocked how much of an impact you can have on humanity, being just somebody that’s a lot online and a lot on videos and TV. It’s kind of wild.”

A family gets a close look at a reptiles at the Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley on Monday.

(James Carbone)

Brewer does have what he calls his “haters,” which he said comes with the territory of having a following online. He doesn’t mind, however.

He said he will soon release a children’s book titled “Jay’s Reptile Zoo: Loved as You Are.”

“Everybody told me this would never work, and they weren’t right,” Brewer said. “That’s because this is my dream, not theirs.”