Zeke Smith (Survivor)
Zeke Smith (Survivor)
Zeke Smith is asset manager, a comedian, and a two-time contest on Survivor. He played in Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X (Season 33) and Survivor: Game Changers (Season 34).
He is the first transgender contestant on Survivor.
Survivor
Zeke Smith introducing himself in the Survivor Castaway interview
The first episode Survivor Zeke Smith watched was Episode 1 of Survivor: Cook Islands on May 2, 2010. After watching that episode, he started creating challenges for himself to prepare himself for the game. He put himself in different social situations in which he'd never participated, ran obstacle races, and backpacked the Grand Canyon.
In the summer of 2015, he applied to be a Survivor castaway.
He got a callback within two hours.
Zeke went through the interview process and he eventually got a slot to play Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X (Season 33).
In Jeff Probst's cast assessment of the season's castaways, he said, "We've never had anybody like Zeke [...] since Richard Hatch (in Survivor: Borneo; Season 1)."
Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X
When Zeke first played Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, he tells the audience that he doesn't consider himself a Millennial.
Hannah Shapiro
He has stayed really good friends with another one of the contestants of the show: Hannah Shapiro.
Hannah was one of the final 3 contestants on the season but lost to Adam Klein; Zeke was one of the 10 jury members who unanimously voted for Adam.
They post photos of each other with the hashtag #Heke, which is a portmanteau of their first names, H annah and Z eke.
Survivor: Game Changers
On Episode 7, Zeke was outed as transgender by fellow contestant and tribemate Jeff Varner.
Varner accused Smith of "deception” before rhetorically asking Zeke, "How come you never told anybody you're transgender?" Many people took that comment to be transphobic and bigoted. Varner was immediately criticized by other players and was unanimously voted off the show.
Zeke said that he had kept his trans identity a secret because he didn’t want to be known as “the trans ‘Survivor’ player.”
Personal Life
Zeke grew up in central Oklahoma and now resides in Brooklyn, NY.
He came out as gay when he was 15 years old.
He transitioned from a woman to a man during college.
His hobbies include writing, improv comedy, and cooking.
Zeke likes to stay in shape, as well: he lifts weights in the morning and swims at night.
Before playing Survivor, he read books on mental toughness techniques utilized by endurance athletes while sitting in a sauna.
When asked to describe himself in three words, he chose, "sharp, devilish, and unstoppable."
His pet peeves include sniffling.
chewing with one's mouth open, people who wear black shoes with brown belts, and children who don't listen to their mothers.