If you were alive and sentient in the summer of 2000, you probably remember where you were when Survivor first crashed into the collective consciousness like a tropical storm—back when television was still a shared experience and “reality TV” was a curious novelty, not a cultural inevitability.
In that inaugural season, amid the alliances, the betrayals, and the endless shots of Richard Hatch’s sunburned backside, one contestant managed to radiate genuine warmth: Colleen Haskell, America’s first “darling” of reality TV. She was charming, slightly goofy, somehow both wide-eyed and self-aware—your platonic ideal of a late-’90s indie rom-com lead, only marooned with a bunch of strangers and a camera crew on the South China Sea.
And then, almost as quickly as she entered our lives, she was gone. No spin-offs, no tabloid scandals, no influencer hustle. So what happened to Colleen Haskell, the reality star who refused to play by reality TV’s rules?
Early Life
Colleen Marie Haskell was born on December 6, 1976, in Bethesda, Maryland. She pursued her college education at the University of Georgia in Athens. Her academic journey took an exciting turn when she secured a six-month internship with the London Film Festival, providing her with the opportunity to study abroad in London, England. After completing her degree, she embarked on a cultural exploration, spending two months in Ghana, West Africa, and following it up with a two-month travel experience in France.
Survivor: Borneo
Colleen Haskell drifted into America’s living rooms in the summer of 2000, the rare reality TV contestant who seemed less interested in playing a game than in having an experience. As part of Survivor’s original cast—yes, that Survivor, when the concept was still fresh and everyone was a little sunburned and disoriented—Colleen found herself in the Pagong tribe, the one filled with bright-eyed young adults who still thought kindness might be a viable strategy.
For a while, she was inseparable from Greg Buis, that other Survivor unicorn: goofy, philosophical, and possibly as smitten with the absurdity of the whole thing as she was. The edit had fun with their dynamic—was it flirtation, or was it just two people clinging to a lifeboat of inside jokes? Jenna Lewis, another Pagong, wondered if romance was blossoming, but both Colleen and Greg batted away the rumors, with Colleen once joking, “it was all about the sex,” a quip that felt more like a wink than a confession.
Everything changed after the merge. The Pagong kids, still playing recess rules, got steamrolled by the older, colder Tagi tribe, who played Survivor like chess with machetes. Colleen, ever the optimist, was the last Pagong standing, ultimately voted out after urging everyone to “be nice” and “play fair”—a final plea that seemed almost quaint even then. Richard Hatch, the show’s Machiavelli-in-shorts, called her “a wonderful person” as her torch went out.
At Final Tribal, Colleen—originally planning to vote for Richard—found herself swayed by his evasive answers and by Susan Hawk’s legendary “rats and snakes” tirade. In the end, her vote went to Kelly Wiglesworth, but it wasn’t enough. Richard, the original Survivor villain, took the crown by a single vote, while Colleen slipped quietly into reality TV legend status: the contestant who made you wish you could root for someone just being themselves.
Post-Survivor Career
After the whirlwind that was Survivor—and the sudden, slightly surreal fame that came with it—Colleen Haskell did something unexpected: she went back to school. While the tabloids speculated and the networks called, she quietly finished her first year at Miami Ad School, before heading out west to San Francisco for an internship and to weigh all those doors that had suddenly swung open. Hollywood came knocking, and in 2001 Colleen made her big-screen debut as Rianna in the unapologetically silly Rob Schneider comedy “The Animal,” bringing that same wry, offbeat charm to the multiplex.
She popped up on TV too—a guest spot on “That ‘70s Show,” a recurring role on “Maybe It’s Me”—before moving off-camera, joining “The Michael Essany Show” as an assistant producer in 2003. And when the inevitable Playboy offer landed, a six-figure check for a magazine cover, Colleen simply said no thanks. Privacy, it turns out, was worth a lot more to her than another fifteen minutes.
What is Colleen Haskell Doing Now?
After a brief stint behind the scenes as an assistant producer on The Michael Essany Show in 2003, Colleen Haskell did what most reality TV alumni only dream about: she stepped quietly and completely out of the spotlight. Since then, she’s kept her head down, her privacy intact, and her story mostly her own.
These days, Colleen calls New York home, sharing her life with her husband, Alan Hampton—a musician’s musician, just as comfortable behind a double bass as he is composing or singing. Hampton’s resume reads like a genre-hopping mixtape: he’s played with everyone from Robert Glasper to Sufjan Stevens to Rufus Wainwright, his music weaving through records, film scores, and television.
Together since 2012, Colleen and Alan are now parents to two daughters, Catherine and Jane. It’s a quieter existence, far from the media’s endless appetite for nostalgia and reunion specials.
And maybe that’s the real twist: the one who left reality TV behind and actually found reality.
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