Survivor Season 51 Contestants: Where Are They Now? Meet the 21 Castaways
CBS’ ‘Survivor‘ entered a new phase with Season 51, bringing 21 first-time castaways to Fiji for what Jeff Probst has described as the beginning of the show’s “Open Era.” The cast is unusually varied even by ‘Survivor’ standards, with a professional wrestler, doctors, attorneys, farmers, an actor, a voice actress, a game designer, a baseball…
CBS’ ‘Survivor‘ entered a new phase with Season 51, bringing 21 first-time castaways to Fiji for what Jeff Probst has described as the beginning of the show’s “Open Era.” The cast is unusually varied even by ‘Survivor’ standards, with a professional wrestler, doctors, attorneys, farmers, an actor, a voice actress, a game designer, a baseball executive and several entrepreneurs all competing for the title of Sole Survivor. The season premiered on September 23, 2026, after filming had already been completed in Fiji.
That also means the contestants have since returned to their lives away from the island, even though viewers are still discovering how their games unfolded. As of October 1, only the results shown through Episode 2 are included here, meaning Aaliyah Puglia and Ana Sani are the only contestants whose eliminations are discussed. For everyone else, their eventual placement remains unspoiled while we look at their careers, businesses and lives outside ‘Survivor.’
CBS introduced all 21 as first-time players, with Toka and Savu serving as the two starting tribes after Lewis Kelly temporarily began the game without a tribe because of his trip to Exile Island.
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Aaliyah Puglia Continues Building Her Life Around Food
Aaliyah Puglia entered ‘Survivor 51’ as a Providence, Rhode Island-based chef originally from Gloucester City, New Jersey. She studied culinary nutrition at Johnson & Wales University and has built experience in both restaurant kitchens and food consulting, with her professional background taking her through different parts of the country before she settled in Rhode Island.
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Her time on ‘Survivor’ ended much earlier than she hoped when Toka voted her out in the premiere. Aaliyah later spoke positively about the experience, describing the first-boot result as strangely freeing and making it clear that she would be interested in playing again if an opportunity arose. Away from the island, her life remains rooted in the culinary world, while her brief run has also connected her to a much larger ‘Survivor’ audience.
Alexis Levine Is Back in the Courtroom World
Alexis Levine lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she works as a criminal defense attorney. Courtroom work is a major part of her identity, and she entered ‘Survivor’ believing that the ability to stay composed, read people and advocate for someone under pressure could translate naturally to the game’s social side.
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Alexis is also a wife and mother, giving her a life outside television that looks very different from the conditions viewers see in Fiji. CBS continues to identify her professional life as criminal defense law, so unlike contestants who came to the show while changing careers, Alexis’ ‘Survivor’ appearance appears to be another chapter alongside an already established legal career.
Thien An Nguyen Returned to Medical School
Thien An Nguyen had one of the clearest post-filming paths of anyone on the cast because she was already in the middle of medical training when ‘Survivor’ came along. The Fort Worth native graduated from Texas Christian University in 2023 after studying biology and subsequently entered the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU.
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By September 2026, TCU identified Thien An as a third-year medical student, confirming that medicine remains the focus of her life outside the series. Her path makes her appearance on ‘Survivor’ more than a temporary career break, as she essentially stepped away from the demanding routine of medical school to take on an entirely different kind of physical and social test in Fiji.
Ana Sani Is Back in Toronto’s Acting World
Ana Sani was already accustomed to hearing her voice on television before viewers saw her competing on ‘Survivor.’ The Toronto-based performer has spent more than a decade working as an actress and voice actress, with credits including ‘Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City,’ ‘Mysticons’ and other animated productions.
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Ana became the second contestant voted out of Season 51 when Savu unexpectedly turned against her in Episode 2. Her elimination came during the same chaotic Tribal Council in which Rob Antonson attempted to vote for himself before learning that contestants cannot do so. With her ‘Survivor’ adventure now finished on screen, Ana remains based in Toronto and continues to be known primarily for the acting and voiceover career she had already established long before heading to Fiji.
Jelly Loblack Is Still Studying People for a Living
Angelica “Jelly” Loblack may have approached ‘Survivor’ as a giant social experiment, but that perspective comes directly from her everyday career. Jelly is a sociologist based in Bloomington, Indiana, and Indiana University identifies her as a postdoctoral fellow with its Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity in Society as well as a visiting assistant professor of sociology.
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She has even incorporated ‘Survivor’ into her academic thinking, discussing the hierarchies, relationships and family-like structures that emerge within the game. Her professional life therefore offers an unusual continuation of what audiences see from her on television: whether she is in a classroom or living with strangers on an island, Jelly has made understanding group behavior a major part of her world.
Brady Booker Remains a Professional Wrestler
Brady Booker was already familiar to wrestling fans before becoming a ‘Survivor’ contestant. The Knoxville-based athlete previously appeared in WWE NXT under the name Bodhi Hayward and has also worked under his own name in professional wrestling, giving him years of experience performing and competing in front of audiences.
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His most talked-about Season 51 moment so far has had nothing to do with a wrestling ring. Brady accidentally sliced off part of his thumb while using a machete in Episode 2, but medical personnel treated the injury and allowed him to remain in the competition. The incident immediately became one of the season’s most memorable images, while his real-world career remains centered on professional wrestling.
Carter Krull Keeps Several Businesses Running
Calling Carter Krull simply a livestock farmer only tells part of the story. Originally from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and now living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Carter grew up around his family’s farming operation and remains closely connected to agriculture. He has also expanded beyond farming by running a moving company and operating a snow cone truck.
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That combination makes Carter one of Season 51’s more unconventional young entrepreneurs. At only 24 when he joined the show, he had already built a working life involving agriculture and multiple small businesses, so his story outside ‘Survivor’ is less about returning to one conventional job and more about continuing the collection of ventures he was juggling before Fiji.
Cristian Chavez Continues His Career in Human Resources
Cristian Chavez lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and works as a head of human resources. It is a profession built around dealing with different personalities, workplace dynamics and difficult conversations, making it easy to understand why he believed those skills could become useful once alliances started forming on the island.
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His energetic personality has been a major part of how CBS introduced him, but his life away from reality television is considerably more structured. Cristian remains associated with the HR world in Salt Lake City, giving him a professional identity that is independent of whatever ultimately happens during his Season 51 game.
Kilby Has Turned His Love of Games Into a Career
Danny “Kilby” Kilby lives in London, Ontario, and works professionally as a game designer. His interest in strategy is not limited to ‘Survivor,’ as he has been immersed in games for years and even met his girlfriend through a fan-created online ‘Survivor’ game.
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Kilby’s job makes him one of the cast members whose real-world skills most obviously overlap with the show. Designing games requires thinking about rules, incentives and how players respond to unexpected situations, while Season 51’s Open Era is specifically built around uncertainty. Outside Fiji, he remains part of Canada’s game-development world rather than pursuing reality television as a full-time career.
Devin Way Continues Acting in Los Angeles
Devin Way was one of the most recognizable members of the Season 51 cast before anyone stepped onto the beach. The Los Angeles-based actor played Brodie Beaumont in Peacock’s ‘Queer as Folk’ reboot and appeared as Dr. Blake Simms in ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ in addition to work on shows including ‘Sistas’ and ‘Station 19.’
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Acting remains Devin’s primary career outside ‘Survivor,’ and he has spoken about the very different kind of community he discovered through the show’s fandom. His appearance in Season 51 brings together two audiences that may not normally overlap, introducing existing television fans to Devin the reality contestant while allowing ‘Survivor’ viewers to discover a screen career that was already well underway.
Eric Macksoud Works as a Mental Health Counselor
Eric Macksoud lives in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and works as a licensed mental health counselor. Understanding how quickly people form trust is part of his professional life, and Eric entered the game believing that his ability to establish rapport could help him navigate a tribe filled with strangers.
Counseling is not his only interest, however. Eric has also been involved in community theater, another environment that regularly requires him to meet new people and form relationships quickly. His life away from the beach therefore combines mental health work with performance, two sides of his personality that have both become visible during his ‘Survivor’ experience.
Jenna Doore Is Still Behind the Camera
Jenna Doore is a wedding photographer based in Toledo, Ohio, and her connection to ‘Survivor’ predates actually getting cast. She was such a committed fan that her photography contracts reportedly included language acknowledging the possibility that a long-awaited ‘Survivor’ opportunity could interfere with a booking.
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Photography continues to define Jenna’s professional life away from Fiji. Her job requires her to spend long days around families and couples during emotional, high-pressure events, while also staying observant enough to capture moments as they happen, making the transition from documenting other people’s major experiences to becoming part of her own nationally televised adventure particularly fitting.
Kristin Flickinger Returned to Crisis Management
Kristin Flickinger waited an extraordinarily long time for her chance to play the game. The Santa Barbara resident had been applying for ‘Survivor’ for roughly 25 years before finally being cast at 49, making her both the oldest player of Season 51 and one of the season’s longest-running applicants.
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Outside television, Kristin works in crisis management and previously served as executive director of Santa Barbara’s Pacific Pride Foundation from 2020 to 2024. She has spent decades working with LGBTQ+ organizations and now works independently, so her professional life remains focused on managing complicated situations and supporting communities even after completing her long-awaited ‘Survivor’ experience.
Lewis Kelly Lives and Farms in Puerto Rico
Lewis Kelly may have grown up in Dublin, Ireland, but his current home is far from it. He lives in Puerto Rico with his wife, Andrea Camila, where the couple have built an unconventional lifestyle that includes living in a converted school bus while working on their small farm.
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Lewis and Andrea also have a significant social-media presence together, giving him an existing audience before his ‘Survivor’ debut. Farming, travel and their unusual home life remain major parts of the couple’s public identity, meaning Lewis had already become comfortable documenting an adventurous lifestyle long before cameras followed him to Fiji.
Linnea Capobianco Continues Growing Afterglow
Linnea Capobianco is an entrepreneur living in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she operates a retail business with her brother Andrew. The siblings co-own Afterglow, a lingerie and intimacy retailer with multiple New York-area locations, including shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as a New Jersey location.
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Running the company has given Linnea experience dealing with customers, staff and a business that requires confidence around topics some people might find awkward. Those skills formed an unusual part of her preparation for ‘Survivor,’ while entrepreneurship remains the center of her professional life now that filming has concluded.
Maggie Nestor Is Back on Her West Virginia Farm
Maggie Nestor brought West Virginia representation to ‘Survivor’ in a way the state had not seen before. The Charles Town resident became the first West Virginian selected to compete on the series, arriving in Fiji with a background that includes farming, athletics, homeschooling her children and studying therapy.
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Her everyday life remains closely connected to her farm and family. Maggie has spoken about pursuing the farming dream even when it initially seemed ambitious, and her outdoors experience made her one of the contestants whose normal lifestyle was already considerably closer to the physical demands of ‘Survivor’ than that of many of her castmates.
Mike Pinsky Returned to the New York Yankees
Mike Pinsky has one of the most distinctive jobs in the entire Season 51 cast. He is an assistant director of baseball operations for the New York Yankees, where his responsibilities include advising on roster decisions, contracts, potential trades and other elements of constructing a Major League Baseball team.
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Pinsky has worked with the Yankees organization since 2017 and is also a Princeton graduate, making analytical decision-making a major part of his life away from television. His day job essentially involves evaluating people, risk and long-term strategy, so moving between a baseball front office and the strategic world of ‘Survivor’ may not be quite as unusual a transition as it initially sounds.
Ori Jean-Charles Continues Working in Fitness
Ori Jean-Charles is a personal trainer from Spring Valley, New York, with a competitive athletic background that predates his appearance on television. Before moving into fitness professionally, Ori played Division I football, an experience that helped shape the disciplined and physically confident approach he brought into ‘Survivor.’
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Personal training remains his career away from the show, keeping health and athletics at the center of his everyday routine. His motivation for competing has also been closely connected to his family, with Ori describing the opportunity as a potential way to repay relatives who supported his earlier athletic ambitions.
Patt Cannaday Remains Connected to Law and the Navy
Patt Cannaday arrived on ‘Survivor’ with a resume that already contained several demanding chapters. CBS introduced the Washington, D.C. resident as a federal prosecutor, while her legal career has also included service as a Navy Judge Advocate General and work on serious military criminal cases.
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She remains connected to the Navy through the Reserve after leaving active duty, keeping public service and law central to her life outside the competition. Patt’s background also makes her one of two attorneys in the Season 51 cast alongside Alexis Levine, although the two arrived in Fiji from very different areas of legal practice.
Rob Antonson Is Back at Boston Logan and Building His Online Presence
Rob Antonson works as an airline gate agent at Boston Logan International Airport and lives with his family in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He has worked at Logan since 2015, regularly dealing with the unpredictable problems that come with busy airport operations, something he has jokingly compared to useful preparation for reality television.
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Rob is also interested in entertainment beyond ‘Survivor.’ He posts videos through his “Rob Show” accounts and has talked about eventually turning part of his home into a sports podcast setup. Episode 2 gave viewers a very different side of him when homesickness led him to consider leaving and ultimately attempt the impossible move of voting for himself, although he remained in the game after Ana was eliminated instead.
Sharonda Cox Returned to Treating Patients in Kentucky
Dr. Sharonda Cox has returned to one of the most demanding careers represented on ‘Survivor 51.’ She is a physician in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where she is currently a fourth-year OB-GYN resident.
Her work involves delivering babies and caring for patients through major medical moments, making the challenges of Fiji very different from the type of pressure she normally faces. Sharonda left Kentucky during the spring to film the season with only her immediate family knowing what she was doing, and she has since resumed her medical training while watching the experience unfold publicly alongside everyone else.
Survivor 51’s Cast Has Already Returned Home, but Their Stories Are Still Unfolding
What makes a “where are they now?” look at ‘Survivor 51’ unusual is that every contestant’s island experience has already ended in real life even though most of their television stories have not. The season was filmed before its September premiere, allowing the cast to resume careers ranging from medicine and law to farming, wrestling, acting and entrepreneurship while remaining unable to reveal how far they made it.
For now, Aaliyah Puglia and Ana Sani are the only confirmed eliminated contestants based on the episodes that have aired. As Season 51 continues, this page can be updated after every elimination with each player’s final placement, post-show interviews, career developments and other confirmed updates without turning the article into a weekly episode recap.
