Meet the 'Survivor 48' Cast! Kamilla Karthigesu Wants to Subliminally Force a Fluid Season

Kamilla Karthigesu's life has been full of, as she puts it, "continuously failing." Her two biggest dreams have been becoming a game developer and to play Survivor, having been consistently denied those opportunities. But the 31-year-old Canadian has succeeded-at least partially out of spite, wanting to prove others' follies in underestimating her. It's that attitude that she plans to carry to the island, as the software engineer is hoping to program the season with some behind-the-scenes coding to make it fluid. That includes her already denying a "tribe strong" mentality, though that doesn't stop her from already basing her gameplay over whether a so-called "Gigachad" is on her beach.

Read on for my interview with Kamilla, and check in with Parade.com daily for interviews with this season's contestants and other tidbits. Survivor 48 premieres on Feb. 26 with a two-hour premiere on CBS.

Related: Meet the Full Cast of Survivor 48

Interview with Kamilla from Survivor 48

Let's start with something simple. Give me your name, age, and occupation.
[Sarcastically.] That's simple. [Laughs.] That's three whole things! My name is Kamilla. I'm 30, almost 31; I'll be 31 a week after filming. And I am a software engineer.

Was computer science something you always wanted to do?
It started off as I played a lot of video games as a child, and I wanted to make video games. But then I found out that regular software engineering is where the money is at, not game dev. Although if I won a million dollars, I probably quit my job and then try and make a game on my own. It's just I don't have the time during the day. All my eight hours are spent making an app for gamers.

Do you have a dream game you'd like to make?
I brought my Switch with me, of course, and so I've been playing lots of Stardew Valley. And right now my brain is only on farming sim, farming sim, farming sim. But I love games like open-world, survival, crafting sort of stuff. Valheim was a great game. I'd love to make something like that. Which is crazy, it's silly, because it's kind of like Survivor! I didn't put that together! [Laughs.]

I was about to say this is basically open-world crafting if you'd like to do that! Listen, there's definitely a history of Survivor video games. But, with no offense, it's not the strongest. So you can be a game changer, quite literally!
I never put those two together. Survivor is the only TV show I watch. I don't really watch TV. I don't watch movies. I'd rather be playing games instead if I had to sit still for an hour and a half. But yeah, the games I play are this type of survival crafting stuff.

Talk to me about that. What's your history with watching Survivor?
So I started watching Survivor, I think I must have been nine or so. It was an adult TV show that I wasn't allowed to watch. I was only allowed to watch cartoons when I was younger. But my mom was watching these shows, and we just weren't allowed to join her until, I guess, The Amazon. So I started watching partway through The Amazon. And like I said, it's an adult TV show. Maybe the second or third episode I watch, they're at an endurance challenge. And people start stripping for peanut butter. I'm like, "Oh God! The one adult show is gonna get ripped away from me." But thankfully, my mom was okay with it.

I continued to watch after that. I did drop off at a certain point, because in high school, I was like, "I'm too cool for TV. I'm only playing video games because that's cooler." And so I missed a couple of seasons in between, and then my brother pulled me back in. I went away for college, and I would come home periodically. And he's like, "You need to start watching Survivor again. This man is going to win the entire game." And it was Tony, wow. So I started early on. He was like, "This dude is gonna win the entire thing." And I thought he was talking about Spencer, because at the time I was like, "Oh yeah, Spencer seems like a smart kid." And I saw a lot of myself in Spencer. But at the time I was like, "Oh yes, so logical. Oh my God, that's me. I'm so logical." Now, after working with a bunch of software engineers, I realized I am not logical. I'm very, very emotional. I always thought I was. Growing up around the people that I was with, I was always the more logical person. And then once I went out into the big real world, I was like, "Oh shit, nope. There are other people that are way more logical and very less emotional than me."

Interesting. So what made you decide to go from watching Tony's antics to hopefully making your own out here on the island?
I guess I kind of always wanted to play when I was a kid. Because as a child, the challenges looked fun. And then when I got older and I saw Spencer, I was like, "This little boy genius made it very far interesting. I can do that too. I don't have to be emotional." Because I thought at the time I wasn't emotional. Like, "Oh, then I can get away without doing all the emotional, social stuff, and just play based off of logic." So I wanted to play the game since then. But I'm Canadian, so I couldn't apply for the longest time. Casting for Season 39 comes around, and I'm like, "Oh, I can finally apply!" And I applied, and I heard nothing from it. That was it. I think it was, at the time, if you were Canadian, you had to send an email with your video. And I got the auto-responder. I'm like, "Whoa, oh my god!" But it was just an auto-responder; nothing happened from that. I'm so glad that that Kamilla did not make it on Survivor, because that was the Kamilla who thought she was very logical, and it's just brain, brain, brain, no emotion. So I'm glad that she's gone.

And now she's in front of us in a much more fully realized version of herself!
Yeah, that was like five, maybe six years ago.

You mention previously associating with Spencer. Give me one winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most.
So winner, I think Erika, and that's just based off of what we were born with and what we're given. We're short, we're over 30, but we're kinda are a bit childish. The way I speak is not very intelligent. I don't have a large vocabulary. I sound stupid when I talk. My sentences are very short. And so I'm very unthreatening. People usually underestimate me. And I think that's kind of what Erika talked about in the beginning, when she was just like, "Even at my job, no one listens to me. I'm a 30-something-year-old, and I'm very senior. But I walk into a room, and I don't get the respect I deserve. Because she's short, very childish face. And that's kind of the stuff that I deal with too. But, okay, it's not that great in the real world. But in a game like Survivor, that is a great thing to have. I can run around and do shit, and people don't think I'm threatening. I'm very unassuming. I can get away with shit; people won't think it's

Non-winner, Carolyn. Because she was just completely herself out there. I have come to realize that my strongest friendships are the one where I'm extremely open, and not the ones where I'm censoring myself. That's when I feel the best. And so I want to come out here and just be myself, be the odd individual that I am. And Jeff says it all the time. He's like, "Did Carolyn kind of give you permission to do this?" And honestly, she kind of did. Because, like, when I watched her, when I initially saw her, I was like, "Oh, this lady is crazy, blah, blah, blah." But in all of her confessionals, the way she like, laid out what was happening, I was like, "This is my exact thought process. Am I the crazy lady, or are we both just normal?" And that's what it is. We're both just maybe not normal in the sense of "normy" people. But we're both odd, and that's okay. And that's fine.

🤩 📺 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter & get the scoop on the latest TV news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🤩🎥

What's your favorite moment in Survivor history?
There's just tiny, stupid things that are coming to my head. Of course, Natalie Anderson trying to mock someone on that challenge. I think Keith or someone spat out, and she spat. It just came back and hit her on her chest. I feel like, sometimes, that could kind of be me trying to be like, "Yes, look, I'm one of the boys, too." And it's just like, "Kamilla, you're 5'1". Your voice has not dropped. It just never dropped. It's still super high. You're not going to be one of the boys."

[Laughs.] What has your preparation been like before getting out here, either physical, mental, strategic, etc.?
Strategic has been a lot of just watching the game, watching the more recent seasons over, even though I've already seen them, just to see things that I might have missed on the first watch. Physical, my husband's been dragging me to the gym every single day, and I hate it. But I got muscles now! Initially, I hated it, and I still hate the running and swimming parts. But I found out I like lifting, so that, I hope, will continue when I go back home. And then for survival stuff, that's been a little tricky. Because I live in a place where you can't make fires, California. I think that's a big problem. I definitely haven't been running out at night and going somewhere like a beach and maybe making fire at night, definitely haven't done that. Because that would be breaking the law. And I'm not a citizen, but I am a permanent resident that doesn't break the law.

What's one life experience you feel has prepared you most for the game?
I think it's just failing. Continuously failing to get to where I want in my career. And would kind of consider where I am right now a failure. Because little girl Kamilla wanted to be a game developer. She's not right now because she's sidetracked. And he end goal is to still be a game developer. I just need to set myself up better to do that. But I failed every step of the way. I didn't get into the right college program. I got into an alternate because I was too stupid to get into the right program. I'm not a software engineer. I didn't go to school for that. And then I was like, "Okay, first year, I'm gonna transfer into software engineering." And then again, too stupid for that.

I was like, "Okay, maybe I can find some internships if I just try and teach it to myself." And I did, but I failed to convert any of those to full-time jobs. And then everyone in college–not everyone, all the boys who studied computer science and software engineering–told me, "There's no point in trying. You're gonna graduate with an industrial engineering degree. Dn't bother. You're not gonna become a software engineer. You just can't." And so I'm a very spite-driven, spite-motivated individual. So I was like, "F–k it. I'm gonna keep going." Didn't get the job I wanted initially. But somehow, a company took a chance on me when I was very underqualified. Here I am! And I've been like, at this place for six years, and it's been great. I mean, it's game adjacent, not game dev.

I think there's this idea that, with a few exceptions, Survivor never goes perfectly for anyone. And it's about having your mind conditioned to that inevitability, and then focus on how you recover. It's a healthy perspective.
Yeah, I guess every time I failed, I didn't let myself stop and mourn about it. I was just like, "Okay, what's next? I still want to get there. Given where I am now, what can I do to still get there and still be successful?" And I think that's what I need for Survivor.

Give me your biggest superpower and your biggest piece of kryptonite when it comes to this game.
I'll start with kryptonite, because that one's easy. I'm very impatient.

Well, good news, because it's a 26-day game.
Yeah, but f–k, that one's gonna be hard to keep it to myself and not explode on my tribemates. That could be a little difficult.

Is that impatience you feeling someone isn't doing something quickly enough? Or are you more so talking about you finding an idol, then immediately wanting to tell someone?
It's usually other people are too slow. It's horrible. But I find that people talk too slow most of the time, which is why I don't watch any videos. I don't listen to podcasts about Survivor. I just read all the transcripts because I'm like, "I can't. This is too slow. Just let me read it faster." I'm very impatient. And so it could be like, if we're trying to figure out who to vote, and someone just needs more help getting to the point, that can be a little frustrating for me. So that might be a little difficult.

Are you gonna be one of those people at Tribal Council that's like, "Jeff, can we vote?"
I might be. I'm just like, "This is too much talking. People are starting to say things that I don't want them to be saying. Some people don't know how to shut their mouths, and they're saying too much to Jeff right now. We need to vote."

Listen, there's precedent for that. What about superpower?
Superpower, I think, is being underestimated. Because I looked around at everyone here. I'm definitely the shortest person here. All my Uber drivers are like, "Are you coming home from school?" I'm like, "I'm not. I'm about to be 31. I'm old!" So I think that will be my superpower. I mean, it's like a double-edged sword. People think there's not much going on here. Maybe I'm not threatening. Maybe that hurts me in the end. But I am confident in my ability to talk my way out of things. So I think it's a superpower, and not the other.

Related: Everything to Know About Survivor 48

Let's talk about your competition, the ones you were quite literally sizing up. Is there anyone you're picking up good vibes from in the preseason?
There's this tall girl. When I first saw her, she had curly hair, but she's been tying it back a lot. If she told me to jump off a cliff, I would jump off a cliff for her. She could tell me to do anything, and I would do anything for her. Her eyes, her smile, everything. It is about her. It's very dangerous. But I would want to keep her around with me, because other people would be like, "Oh, she's dangerous, not me." So I would love to get to know her, work with her.

So there are three Chads that they found. And out of the three of them, they actually found Gigachad himself, and he is here on this beach. The dude's biceps are the size of my thighs. He's got like the jaw, the face. I want him to be on my tribe so that he can Jonathan Young us through all the swimming challenges, because I'm not a strong swimmer. I just want to be tossed through the Pacific Ocean, and I hope he could do that for us.

What about on the other end? Anyone giving you red flags?
Okay, so I am a fan of the show. I read all of the pregame stuff. And I know that for 46 there was someone that everyone talked about, a bearded individual with the initials SD. There is a bearded SD here. As soon as I saw what, as soon as I heard SD, I freaked out. I'm like, "This dude has a beard. Could this be him?" But he seemed chill. I don't know if he got a talking to last time, because what I heard was he was making eye contact with everyone. I heard stuff about, him trying to pass notes and stuff. And he didn't do any of that this time.

But if it's the same SD–and if it's not, I feel so bad for this poor guy. He's just cursed by having the initials SD and having a beard. It's his fault. He should have shaved before he came out here. I don't trust this guy at all. His eyes kind of scare me because. I don't know what it is. But when I look at him, sometimes there's too much. The white in the eyes, like the irises, are small, and that's a little scary look. I don't like that. But he's giving me Tony vibes. And so I don't want to play with that. I want to get that out of here.

You've mentioned Tony a couple of times. How do you plan on incorporating idols and advantages into your game?
It really depends. So if I'm stuck on a tribe, if I end up being on the next Lulu, the next Yanu, I'm not going for Beware Advantages and stuff like that. My vote is very important. I'm gonna play a bit more conservative and rely on social stuff to try and get me through the game. But if we have Giga Chad on my tribe, then I will open a Beware Advantage, I'll risk my vote, I'll do all that stuff. Because I'm like, "We're probably not gonna go to Tribal Council if we have him." I hope so. Unless he ends up like Q, then I don't know.

What's your hottest Survivor take?
I'm sorry, Jeff. Boston Rob, he won on his fourth time. I just wasn't a fan of him in any of his seasons at all. And, okay, sorry sorry again, Jeff. Sorry, Boston Rob. But he won on Redemption Island when no one knew how to play Survivor. He just told people what to do, and no one tried to fight it. So put him on any other season, and he wouldn't have won. Boston Rob is like a censored word amongst me and my friends. We have to asterisk one of the vowels for me, for my sanity.

What celebrity or fictional character would you bring out for a Loves Ones visit?
So whenever I have to ask this question in my real life, I always say Jeff Probst.

I mean, that's easy enough! "Jeff, take two steps to your left."
I mean, I don't really watch TV or movies. I don't know celebrities. I mean, the only other person would be a video game character, and that's Brimstone from Valorant. He's got big money.

Yeah, I read in your bio that you've played Valorant semi-professionally during the pandemic.
That's why Gigachad is stuck in my head! Because I want to look like them. I want to have big muscles after I start lifting. That's my goal. I want to look like that.

What's your main takeaway from Seasons 45 and 46 that you're bringing into your gameplay?
I don't want no "Reba strong, tribe strong." Stuff like that, to me, is very boring gameplay. And, as a fan, it's not fun to watch. I want to be on a season that I can re-watch 20 years from now and be like, "Yeah, this was an actual fun season to watch." And so I don't want any of this "tribe strong" thing. I want it to be very fluid. I don't want there to be very strict alliances. And I hope, from the little talk Jeff gave us earlier, it sounded like we have a bunch of people who are here and they want to play. And when I think of people who want to play, I think of people who want to have an alliance with everyone kind of thing. They want to have a bunch of options. And if everyone has a bunch of options, that means the game is open to be fluid. And so I also want to have a bunch of options. I'm hoping that that's how the game pans out. And if it doesn't, I guess "Reba–or whatever my tribe is–strong."

Lastly, how are you going to make your mark on Survivor 48 to make sure you return for Season 50?
I don't need big moves. I need to make smart moves. Because big moves get you. People have "big moveitis" and then do it too early, and get sent home. But it's fun to watch. You remember those people. You remember Jesse, you remember Karla from their season. And so I guess timing is a big thing. But also trying this one might get me sent home. I want to try and see if I can subliminally force a fluid game. Get other people on board with this idea. Because then there's a lot of opportunity to make really insane plays.

Next, check out our interview with Survivor 48 contestant David Kinne.