Jeff Probst

Jeff Probst is a television host and executive producer best known for hosting the long-running reality competition series Survivor. Born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised in Bellevue, Washington, Probst graduated from Newport High School and later attended Seattle Pacific University.

He began his career as a producer and narrator for marketing videos at Boeing Motion Picture Television Studio. He moved into hosting with FX’s Backchat and Sound FX before gaining national attention in the late 1990s. His breakout came in 2000 when he began hosting CBS’s Survivor, which became a cultural phenomenon and launched his career into the spotlight.
Following his Survivor debut, Probst has hosted every season of the show and earned multiple Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. Outside of hosting, he directed and wrote the 2001 film Finder’s Fee, starring Ryan Reynolds. He later directed and produced the 2014 film Kiss Me.

In addition to his television work, Probst hosted The Jeff Probst Show, a syndicated daytime talk show that aired for one season in 2012.

Probst was wed to psychotherapist Shelley Wright from 1996 to 2001. He later dated Julie Berry, a former Survivor: Vanuatu contestant. In 2011, he married Lisa Ann Russell and became a stepfather to her two children, Michael (born in 2004) and Ava (born in 2006).