Wendell Holland

Wendell F. Holland, II (born March 8, 1984) is an American furniture company owner best known for competing on the American reality show Survivor. On May 23, 2018, he was revealed as the winner of the show's 36th season, Survivor: Ghost Island.

Early life

Holland grew up in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.^[1] He attended Morehouse College, where he graduated phi beta kappa, and University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he became a lawyer. After selling several home-made beds on Craigslist, he ultimately left his law practice and founded Beve Unlimited, a furniture company in Philadelphia.

Survivor

In 2018, Holland participated in Survivor: Ghost Island, the 36th season of Survivor. He started on the Naviti tribe where he aligned with Domenick Abbate. Following the first tribe switch, he remained on Naviti along with original Naviti's Abbate, Chris Noble, Morgan Ricke and Angela Perkins. Following Naviti's next immunity challenge loss, Holland and Abbate tried to target Perkins after Noble was sent to Ghost Island, but Ricke was blindsided at Tribal Council, shocking Holland and Abbate. Despite appearing to be on the bottom, Holland stayed in the game after Naviti won the next two challenges. Following the second switch, he was sent to Yanuya where he found Erik Reichenbach's immunity necklace from Micronesia, which was now a hidden immunity idol. Yanuya won the remaining challenges, allowing him to make it to the merge.

Shortly after the merge, Holland and Abbate formed a secret final four alliance with original Malolo members Donathan Hurley and Laurel Johnson. At the Final Eight, he was targeted by the female members from the original Naviti tribe, but managed to escape elimination. At the Final Five, he used Reichenbach's necklace on Johnson, but it was unneeded as Hurley was unanimously voted out. When Abbate won the final immunity challenge, he saved Johnson which required Holland and Perkins to compete in a fire-making challenge. Holland defeated Perkins which earned him a spot at the Final Tribal Council.

During the Final Tribal Council, he was respected for his more relaxed social game, but jury members wondered what he did throughout the game. Both Holland and Abbate ended up tying with five jury votes each, making it the first time in Survivor history where the jury vote ended in a tie. With them tied, Johnson became the final jury member and cast the deciding vote. On May 23, 2018, it was revealed that Johnson voted for Holland, thus making him the sole Survivor.

Awards & Nominations

References

External links

• Official CBS biography page
• Official Web site