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After Andy Rueda found out that his former Gata tribe members weren’t prioritizing him in the merge, he was ready to make a move on season 47 of Survivor.
Who Is ‘Survivor’ Season 47 Star Andy Rueda?
Andy worked as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) research assistant at Brandeis University until August 2024, per his LinkedIn. He worked full-time in the school’s Broadening Linguistic Technologies Lab for two years. He also worked for a semester as a teaching assistant for the university’s undergraduate Syntactic Theory course.
In addition to being employed at Brandeis, Andy earned his master’s degree in “computational linguistics, which focuses on machine learning, specifically natural language processing” at the school. He completed his studies in August 2024.
Andy went on Survivor hoping to be able to use his number skills as an asset in the game. “I work in AI. I was a data analyst in big tech before. I’m really, really good with numbers on the fly,” he told Parade magazine. “And I feel like I’m very, very confident no matter what situation I’m thrown into. I’m always going to know the optimal – whether it’s a vote split or some plurality option – I’m going to be able to see that. And I feel really confident to have the plan and have the bonds to execute on that.”
The reality star previously attended New York University and graduated with a degree in film and television production in 2015. After graduation, he taught himself how to code, which led to his success in the tech industry. Andy worked at Meta and Pinterest in contract positions and became interested in AI and machine learning, which prompted his master’s degree journey.
Where Does Survivor’s Andy Rueda Live?
Andy is originally from Buffalo, New York, but moved to Boston while attending Brandeis. After receiving his master’s degree, Andy moved to Brooklyn, New York, for the next phase of his life.
“I feel like my momentum is still going forward, and I do know that whatever sort of challenges come next, whatever career opportunities present themselves, I’m going to pursue them with passion,” he said in an interview for Brandeis. “I know myself better than ever now. I have a better sense of my strengths, my weaknesses, what I want to do in this world. So I’m just riding the wave. I’m riding the wave.”
Andy Rueda Auditioned for ‘Survivor’ Multiple Times
“I’ve been such a super fan of this show for the last decade of my life. It’s such a call to adventure. There’s really nothing else like it,” Andy said in his Brandeis interview. “As soon as I saw it for the first time, I started thinking, ‘I could do that.’”
Becoming a cast member wasn’t so easy, though. After several years of considering auditioning, Andy finally submitted his audition tape. However, it wasn’t until he sent in his fourth tape in 2022 that he finally moved on in the casting process. He was a finalist for season 46 but didn’t get accepted as a contestant until season 47, which filmed in early 2024.
Andy said he didn’t start religiously watching Survivor until after he graduated college. The first season he watched in full was Survivor: Tocantins.
Does Survivor’s Andy Rueda Have a Girlfriend?
On the premiere episode of Survivor season 47, Andy had a conversation with fellow contestant Jon Lovett and proudly told him, “I’m bi[sexual].”
Andy is dating a woman named Shannon. She first posted on Instagram with him in August 2023. Shannon also lives in Brooklyn and appears to be a Survivor fan. She has several Instagram photos with Survivor season 45 contestant Brandon Donlon.
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