Biography

Phillip Brandon Branch was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana to Sandra Branch (Forbes) and Phillip Branch, a dairy farmer. He was raised in the small, rural town of Tylertown, Mississippi, about an hour and a half north of New Orleans. His ancestry includes English, Scotch, and Irish. He has two sisters, Kamala and Colbye. It was all hands-on-deck around the farm. The entire family would wake at three thirty in the morning to round up and milk the cows before later going to school. Brandon's job was to hand feed the baby calves using a milk bottle. As Brandon got older and knew he was gay, he developed the talent of using humor to deflect insults from people who were unaccepting.

Upon graduation from Pine High School, Brandon attended Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. Though he initially studied landscape architecture, his grandmother had instilled in him the love of gradening, so Brandon changed his major to Horticulture, in which he obtained his Bachelor's degree.

After graduating college, Brandon moved to Aspen, Colorado and joined a private firm specializing in floral arrangements, parties, and events for the Hollywood Elite who had homes in the area. After a year in the snow, Brandon realized he preferred living in warmer weather. In 2001, after reading and falling in love with the book "Midnight In The Garden of Good & Evil", which was about Savannah, Georgia, Brandon resigned his job in Aspen and moved to Savannah, where he has been ever since.

For fourteen years, he was the creative director for a Food Network personality. During this time, he met and began dating Jim Johnston, a REALTOR. The two began buying, renovating, and selling historic homes. They married in May of 2016 in the small, Italian town of Forcoli, near Pisa.

In early 2017, friend Catherine Cooper asked for Brandon's help putting together a party for a new reality show in which she had been cast, called Southern Charm Savannah. Brandon fit in well with the cast and was in the majority of the episodes during the show's first season. In 2018, Bravo announced Brandon would become a full time cast member on the show.

Brandon and Jim live in Savannah's Landmark Historic District in an Italianate home built in 1890. In addition to being on Southern Charm, Brandon is a full time interior and floral designer. The two live with their two Dachshunds, Simon and Charlie.