People lie about all sorts of things on the islands of Survivor. Of course, they are pretty much always lying when it comes to the game, because lying is the game. But there is also so much more to lie about. They lie about their age. They lie about their profession. They lie about where they went to school and what they studied. Sometimes they even lie about their family. LIARS! THE WHOLE LOT OF THEM!

So what will be the cast of Survivor 48 be lying about when the season kicks off Feb. 26 on CBS? We asked the 18 competitors exactly that in Fiji just days before filming began. Read on for the intel on all the players that their tribe mates will not be getting.

Kamilla Karthigesu

I don’t want people to know I’m a software engineer. I feel like people hear the word engineer and they’re like, “Oh, that person’s smart.” Even though I am a software engineer, I work with many not-smart software engineers. There are many stupid ones out of us. But I don’t want them to know that. They might think I’m smart, and I feel like I do a good job just naturally in the way I speak of dumbing myself down.

I don’t have a big vocabulary, and my sentence structure is pretty simple. And also, when I can’t think of a word, I use s— as a replacement for that word. And so I don’t sound intelligent at all. So I feel like that’ll help get people to think less of me, and that’s kind of what I want initially. I don’t want to be seen as a threat and I’m confident in my ability later on to articulate — that’s a big word — my game and my strategy and stuff, but I don’t want them knowing that upfront.

Justin Pioppi

I actually transferred to Yale. I was one of 26 out of 2,800 plus applicants to have that prestige and honor and I’m very, very grateful for the opportunity to have gone there and graduated and studied. My parents worked very hard to put me in that situation, and I’m deeply appreciative. I just don’t want anyone to know that out here. I don’t think that will fare well for me. But I think I hide that pretty well. I don’t really talk like a Yale grad. I don’t really look like a Yale grad. I don’t have a traditional work experience of a Yale grad.

I got some friends on Wall Street, I got some in venture capital, I got some doing teaching degrees and PhDs, and I’m making meatball sandwiches on Friday nights for my parents. So it’s a little bit different, but I think that helps me. I still have all those skills that I learned and all that experience that an Ivy League education could give me and I’m grateful for it. I’m not going to openly share that out here.

Mary Zheng

I mean, I’m a 90 percent open book, but the 10 percent that I’m going to keep close to my guard is I don’t want people to know that I’m a social worker that works with adults. I do therapy, whether it’s for substance abuse counseling or for private practice. I have volunteered at suicide hotlines and emergency departments, and I don’t want people to know that I work with adults in that capacity. I’m going to lie and say that I work with kids because I feel like it’s less threatening. The number one conversation killer at a party is when they’re like, “What do you do?” And I’m like, “Therapist.” And they’re like, “Oh, well, what am I thinking right now?” Or, “Wow, I should really talk with you about my mom.” And it’s just like, “Yeah, no, I’m not going to be therapizing you right now.”

So I’ve learned to say that I’m a social worker. But for this game, I’m going to knock it up a little bit and say that I work with kids. And then I also don’t want them to know that I am a planner and am thinking multiple steps ahead, because I feel like I won’t be able to hide that I’m a competitor. That’s going to come out in the challenges and I’m not going to hide that. I’m also a social butterfly, so if I also did not hide that I was strategic, it would be just a few days before I was voted out.

Thomas Krottinger

I mean, I have a big secret that I’m a music publisher and I’ve signed some big pop stars. I am going to talk about my job, but not to the fullest of extents when it comes to this game, just because I don’t want everybody to know what I do for a living entirely and what level that I work at. So I feel like I’m walking into this game with a big secret. Maybe everyone else has secrets too, but I can only speak from my point of view, and it feels like I have this big secret that I’m going to have to keep from the game for the entire time. They don’t need to know all of that. They need to think of me as just Thomas, the lovable guy from North Texas.

Chrissy Sarnowsky

I don’t want to hide anything. I’m an open book, so whatever comes out my mouth, I’m saying it. I was never good at really holding too many secrets about myself. I’m pretty proud of what I do and who I am. But if it’s going to help me in the game, I will hold back if I have an idol or something like that. But as far as me, it’s all good. If you lie, you got to remember that lie, and then another lie, and another lie.

Shauhin Davari

I was a lawyer and I’m definitely not telling them that I quit that. But certainly that training trains your brain to think a certain way, which makes you a threat. And I don’t want to tell them that. And I’m not going to tell them that I have anything to do with speech and debate because I think that definitely makes me a threat in a final Tribal way. Like, “Oh, he is going to have great speeches and blah, blah, blah, blah.” I’m going to tell them that I’m a college professor, that I teach in the Student Success Center, and that’s kind of what I’m going with — helping students figure out college, which isn’t really a lie, in that I really do help students figure things out.

That’s kind of how I view myself as a speech and debate coach. And I’m not just a speech and debate coach. I’m one of the best that’s ever done it at the community college level. We’ve won more national championships while I’ve been there than any other team has won at the places that we go to compete. So we’re very, very successful, and we’re one of the biggest teams as well. I have a huge community, and I have to manage all of them and run them and know what motivates them. And I have students that come from all different backgrounds, from people who are returning in their thirties to people who are fresh out of high school, and I think that makes me a huge threat. It’s a small lie, not something that I’m going to be like, “Wow, look at me” if I win. It’s just showing that I thought about this from a lot of different ways and I have to minimize my threat profile without making myself a bigger threat by getting caught in a lie.

Star Toomey

That’s the tough part. I’m stuck between: Do I want to tell everyone about my family and my 11-month-old son? When we get to talk, some people might say, “Hey, she has a story, I got to get her out of here.” It might sound so good until we actually get into the game and they can base my story off of my game moves. So I’m just stuck on what should I tell. Should I come off and be an open book or should I stay a little closed off and listen to other people’s backgrounds and stories and can use that to my advantage to create my alliances or my friendships within the area?

Kyle Fraser

I’m a litigator. I’m actually working for a judge right now for a one-year thing, but prior to that I did white collar criminal defense work. And I definitely do not want people to know I’m a lawyer. Maybe I even don’t want them to know about that at a final Tribal, if I’m fortunate to get there. I’m going to say I’m a teacher. The reason I’m going to do that is not because I think lawyers are smarter than teachers or anything like that. I just think that one, now it’s just a trope. You can’t say you’re a lawyer on Survivor. And two, I think that’ll make me a little bit more relatable. People have this notion that lawyers are deceptive, so I’m trying to sort of get around that. And I used to teach, actually. I got plenty of fodder, plenty of stories, and I miss working with kids every day. So I think it’ll be a good way to sort of have some fun and not have to talk about the law.

Bianca Roses

Listen, I want to come out here and be friendly and be myself and not put up any barriers. But, at the same time, I don’t want to be seen as a threat as someone that can be a social butterfly and connect with any single person. I also don’t want anyone to know that I have a very long career in public relations and that I’ve built a living. And in the past year of business, I left the agency I was at for almost eight years to start my own company.

So I don’t want them to know a lot of that right now. I work in events. I’m an event manager helping with corporate events. So I feel like PR people have a bad rap, have that kind of salesy vibe. I don’t want to come out here and be a Kaleb. I don’t want people to think, “Oh, Bianca is just in PR. She’s going to spin a story. She’s going to lie easily. She’s going to be able to riff and improvise and be strategic and all that stuff.” And maybe I’m overthinking it, but I don’t think I am. I think PR is a red flag. It started as lawyers and doctors — you cannot be that. But I feel like it’s shifted to insulting salesman. I feel like PR can fall into that.

Mitch Guerra

I’m definitely not a good liar, so I’m a pretty open been book. I’m pretty competitive, so trying to keep that as chill as possible, which honestly, I probably won’t do a good job doing. The past year and a half, I started doing a bunch of running, so I’ve done a couple of half marathons, I did a full marathon. So it was something to kind of take my mind away from not getting the opportunity to come out and play Survivor. And then the next thing, I’m out here. So it worked!

Charity Nelms

I definitely won’t be sharing the fact of how much I’ve traveled as a flight attendant and the privilege I’ve gotten with that. It does not reflect my bank account. Also, I think I will probably be dialing back my tenacity a little bit. I am very tenacious, very bold. I am a go-getter. Anything that I decide to do, I do a hundred percent and I’m going to be the best at it. Same with any sport I’ve played.

I built a business. I woke up one day and said, “You know what? I’m going to share my fitness journey. I’m going to build a business.” My first six weeks in business, I made double what I made as a flight attendant. I am a go-getter and so I have to dial that back a little bit because I think that can intimidate people and scare people a little bit, especially in this game. So I’m really just leaning into my, “I’m very happy go lucky.” I’ll do anything to make anyone laugh, including totally humiliating myself. If I can make you laugh, I’ll do it. I am really kind of keeping that part of my personality at the forefront, and keeping the serious workhorse on the back burner.

Joe Hunter

I’m afraid of them really knowing the deeper secret within me is that I’m a really sensitive person. I’m kind of a pushover to any individual that’s also suffered some pain, been through some difficult times. I feel like I’m an empath in that I really know the difference between sympathy and empathy, and sometimes in a competitive arena that can be used against you. So one thing I want to hide at certain times is kind of that vulnerability side of me until I really can understand my position in this game and more importantly, who my alliances are or not before I release that.

Stephanie Berger

I am not going to share the degree to which I’ve achieved at my job. I don’t think I’m going to hide the place that I work at because it’s too complicated. I just think it’s important for me to scale it back. So if I share what I do professionally, I’ll be talking about what I did when I was an intern at the place that I currently work versus what I currently do at my job. I don’t think folks need to know that I’m the boss. I don’t think they need to know that I am pushing forward $100 million-projects. They don’t need to know that the night before I came out here, I was advising VPs on what our strategy should be to address a pretty pressing problem that I’ve also somehow been able to walk away from for the next five weeks.

They don’t need to know those things and that’s not going to be part of the Stephanie Berger experience here on the island. Certainly, she’s here. I can’t actually take that part of myself and be like, “I’m going to leave it in my luggage at Ponderosa and I’ll come pick it up when I get back.” That’s not possible, but I don’t want to lead with her. I want to lead with some of the other parts of myself, the parts of myself that make elaborate Mardi Gras costumes that take me 70 hours leading up to the holiday. I’m that girl at Ponderosa right now. I’ve got my tarot card deck at Ponderosa. I don’t have spreadsheets, and that’s very intentional. I’ve just started now doing a crossword in front of people, but that’s only because they gave us a crossword book. I did not bring my own. I made a big mistake of doing a difficult one though. That’s on me.

Kevin Leung

I currently am a finance manager at a really big tech company. I got my MBA last year and graduated top of my class, so I don’t want to brag or anything, but I would like to say I’m a little bit of a brainiac. I love puzzles, but here it’s so different because you’re a threat if you’re strategically good at puzzles or you’re smart. So I am going the opposite direction. I’m just going to tell people I’m a finance person at a construction or utility company. I mean, that seems very unassuming.

Sai Hughley

There are a few things I don’t want them to know. What I used to do for work, first of all. I used to work in marketing, so I’m really good at talking to all different types of people all the time. I also don’t want them to know that I’m a control freak. I have to have control at all points and I kind of go a little stir crazy. Another weakness of mine is my emotional vulnerability. I can come off as very hard, but that’s because growing up all of the women in my life were very strong, independent, and resilient and we didn’t cry.

I didn’t hug my mom a lot because I didn’t see it shown to me. So it’s hard for me to want to go in and hug someone. However, it’s really contradictory, because my personality makes it seem like I’m really fluffy and people want to hug me and want to high five me and I’ll do that because I’m a people pleaser. But on the inside, I’m literally like “Do not touch me.”

Cedrek McFadden

I’m a fairly open book. I don’t anticipate holding anything back from my profession or about my family. Most people tell me I have a hard time holding secrets because I do tend to talk to people and I tend to share, and I think that helps build those connections. There’ll be things that I won’t readily divulge, but I do think if the conversation heads in a certain direction, I’m open to continue that conversation so that both parties are connected over whatever we’re talking about.

Eva Erickson

I’m definitely hiding the fact that I’m getting my PhD in engineering. I’m going to really lean into the fact that I’m an athlete and that I’m a ref. I’m going to say that’s my profession and really just have everyone see me as a physical player while hiding that I’m also highly intelligent.

David Kinne

To be fair, I think very rarely you come across someone who has the brawn and the brain, and so I think people are going to underestimate just how savvy I might be at puzzles or social game, and I don’t want them to know that because I want them to just kind of see me as the physical threat. The moment they see me as anything more than just the physical threat, I think I might be in trouble. So if I can just negate some of that and hold back a bit, at least initially, and then sort of wrap it up, that’s going to be my strategy.

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