Monica Padilla

Monica Padilla is a contestant from and .
In Samoa, Monica proved to be a hindrance to her tribe in challenges, though her strong position within the Galu Alliance, as well as the Galu tribe's general success in challenges, allowed her to reach the merge. However, after her alliance was decimated, she pushed Russell Hantz's buttons by threatening to reveal that he was a millionaire, resulting in her being voted out.
Monica later returned for Cambodia, where she attempted to make an all-female alliance on the Bayon tribe. However, Kimmi Kappenberg foiled her plans by informing the rest of the tribe, leading to Monica's eventual blindside. 
==Profile==
Retrieved from CBS.com
<tabber>Samoa=
Monica Padilla (25)
Hometown: San Diego, Calif.
Occupation: Law Student
Monica Padilla is the first in her family to not only complete her undergraduate degree but also obtain a Juris Doctor. Recently, she graduated from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, where she perfected, what she describes as, her power of persuasion. She fully intends to use her beauty and the fact that she "can sell ice cubes to an Eskimo" to her advantage in the game.
Exotic looks, in addition to intellect, have landed her a wide range of jobs, such as a clerk position at a well-known investment firm, as well as a position playing a theme park Pocahontas. With the keen ability to change from bookworm to party girl in a matter of moments, she is sure she will be able to adapt to anything she comes across on the island. She says that while in the Samoan wilderness, she will miss partying, clubbing and lunch with friends the most, which was exactly what she did in her free time even as she was in the home-stretch of obtaining her degree.
Much like Parvati and Amanda (from ), she plans to be as "sweet as pie," while subtly using the "flirt card," in order to come off as endearing rather than overbearing. In addition to killing her fellow castaways with kindness, she has every intention of pulling her own weight around camp while studying their words and actions meticulously to "learn about her enemies before she chooses her weapon." Confident that she can win the title of Sole Survivor, Monica plans to buy a designer purse as her first selfish purchase.
Monica resides in San Diego, Calif. and her birthday is July 14.http://web.archive.org/web/20230324182054/https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/36308/
==Survivor==
===Samoa===
Monica was placed on the Galu tribe at the beginning of the season. Despite Galu's lengthy winning streak, at the Day 11 Immunity Challenge, Monica slowed down the tribe during the rope course portion of the challenge, allowing Foa Foa to catch up and ultimately win their first Immunity Challenge. Due to Monica's role in losing the challenge, she was targeted by several members of Galu. However, she was deemed more of an asset than Yasmin Giles, who was voted out instead.
On Day 15, it was announced that both tribes would vote someone out in a Double Tribal Council. Monica, along with Kelly Sharbaugh and Laura Morett, planned to vote out Shambo Waters because of the latter's inability to connect with the rest of tribe and possible connections to Foa Foa. Unbeknownst to Monica, the men of Galu conspired to use Shambo to join them in blindsiding Monica, hoping to separate her from Laura. However, Monica was spared after Russell Swan was medically evacuated, cancelling the vote.
After the tribes merged into the Aiga tribe on Day 19, Monica was approached by Russell Hantz about an alliance and showed her his Hidden Immunity Idol. While she told Russell H. that she would align with him, Monica's true loyalty remained to Laura. Prior to the first merged Tribal Council, Kelly informed Monica that Erik Cardona had told the former Foa Foa members to vote out Monica. This caused almost everyone to turn against Erik and blindside him in a 10-2 vote. At this Tribal Council, Russell H. played his idol but did not garner any votes against him. Believing Russell H. did not posses another idol, Monica and the other former Galu members cast their votes against him at the following Tribal Council. Surprisingly, Russell H. found the re-hidden idol and played it, negating the Galu Alliance's votes against him and blindsiding her ally Kelly.
The next day, Monica was approached by Jaison Robinson and Mick Trimming, who told Monica that the former Foa Foa's now held a five-person alliance and wanted her to be the sixth. Monica immediately told this development to Laura, and hypothesized that Shambo had allied with the Foa Foas. The two soon realized that the upcoming vote would end with a 5-5 deadlock between the former Galus and the former Foa Foas and Shambo. Unwilling to vote out Laura, Monica concocted a plan to bluff the four Foa Foas into voting for John Fincher to avert a tie. However, John refused to go along with Monica's idea. At Tribal Council, the vote ended in a 5-5 tie between Laura and Natalie White. However, on the revote, John changed his vote to Laura, eliminating her. At the next Tribal Council, Monica voted against John with the remainder of her alliance in retaliation for voting out Laura.
Still solidly in the minority, Monica talked to Russell H., hoping to convince him to vote out Shambo over the intended target, Dave Ball. Although Russell H. considered this, Dave was still voted out that night. At the Day 33 Immunity Challenge, Monica's remaining ally Brett Clouser won, putting the target on Monica. Monica approached Russell H. again, insisting that he should be voting out people that would vote for him to win. Monica also said that she knew that he was a millionaire, having been informed of this by Jaison several days earlier and that she would give her jury vote to whomever needed the money, angering Russell H. Despite her scrambling, the Foa Foa Four and Shambo followed through with their plan and Monica was voted out in a 5-2 vote. She became the sixth member of the jury.
At the Final Tribal Council, Monica started her speech by congratulating the finalists. For her question, Monica asked Mick and Natalie why the other two did not deserve to win. Mick said that Natalie was undeserving because of doing nothing more than riding Russell H.'s coattails and that Russell H. was undeserving because of his ego and pitting people against one other. Russell H. interjected and pointed out that Mick had no problem with what he was doing throughout the game. Satisfied with her answers, Monica voted for Natalie to be the Sole Survivor.
<tabber>Challenge History=
Episode 	TribeAffiliation 	Challenge 	Challenge Type 	Sit-Out? 	Result
1 	rowspan=11 	Chief's Choice 	Reward 	Yes 	
1 	Yank Your Hank 	Immunity 	No 	 	
2 	Schmergen Brawl 	Reward/Immunity 	Yes 	 	
3 	Sea Crates 	Reward/Immunity 	Yes 	 	
4 	Bocce In A Box 	Reward 	Yes 	 	
4 	Well Stacked 	Immunity 	Yes 	 	
5 	Samoa Smoothies 	Reward 	No 	 	
5 	Sack Attack 	Immunity 	No 	 	
6 	Roll With It 	Reward 	Yes 	N/A 	
7 	Brain Food 	Reward 	No 	 	
7 	Canoe Dueling 	Immunity 	Yes 	 	
colspan="6" 	 	 	 	 	
8 	rowspan=9 	Nut Cracker 	Immunity 	 	
9 	Coconut Code 	Reward 	 	 	
9 	Square Peg, Round Hole 	Immunity 	 	 	
10 	Get Hooked 	Reward 	 	 	
10 	Spear Me The Details 	Immunity 	 	 	
12 	Survivor Auction 	Survivor Auction 	Survivor Auction 	Survivor Auction 	
12 	Drop A Log 	Immunity 	 	 	
13 	Fauxconut Bowling 	Immunity 	 	 	
13 	Walk On Water 	Immunity 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	
Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.	Notes: Russell S. collapsed at the challenge, causing the challenge to be stopped with no winner.
|-|Voting History=
Episode 	Monica'sVotes	Voted AgainstMonica
1 	 	
2 	 	
3 	 	
4 	 	
5 	 	
6 	colspan="2" 	
7 	 	
8 	 	
9 	 	
10 	 	
12 	 	
13 	 	
13 	 	
 	 	
Voted forSole Survivor	colspan="2" 	
 In , Russell H. used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Monica's vote against him. In , the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Laura and Natalie, forcing a revote. Monica did not change her vote on the revote.</tabber>
===Cambodia===
Monica was one of the twenty castaways chosen to compete on the second chance season, Survivor: Cambodia. At the beginning of the game, Monica was placed on the Bayon tribe, which went on to win the first two Immunity Challenges of the season.
On Day 7, a Tribe Switch occurred. However, the castaways were caught off-guard when host Jeff Probst announced that a third tribe would be introduced into the game. In a random draw of buffs, Monica was placed on the new Bayon tribe with Jeremy Collins, Kimmi Kappenberg, Stephen Fishbach, and original Ta Keo members Kelly Wiglesworth and Spencer Bledsoe. Bayon won the first two Immunity Challenges after the switch, keeping Monica from Tribal Council. On Day 12, Monica got into an argument with Kimmi over the tribe's food resources as she believed that the tribe should not deplete their food.
After Bayon lost the Immunity Challenge the following day. Monica wanted to vote Spencer out so that she could keep the women's numbers up and possibly form a women's alliance in the future, and mentioned the plan to Kimmi. However, Kimmi was bothered by Monica playing an individual game before the merge and alerted Jeremy and Stephen, which shocked them. At Tribal Council, Monica would abandon her plan to vote for Spencer and voted against Kelly, as her alliance wanted. However, Monica was blindsided in a 3-2-1 vote over Kelly for being untrustworthy.
<tabber>Challenge History=
Episode	TribeAffiliation 	Challenge 	Challenge Type	Sit-Out?	Result
1 	rowspan=8 	The Marooning 	Reward 	No 	
1 	Quest for Fire 	Reward/Immunity	No 	 	
2 	Yank Yer Hank 	Reward/Immunity	No 	 	
3 	Draggin' the Dragon 	Immunity 	No 	 	
4 	Stomp-ede 	Reward 	Yes 	 	
4 	Blind Leading the Blind	Immunity 	Yes 	 	
5 	In the Barrel 	Reward 	No 	 	
5 	Air Raid 	Immunity 	Yes 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	
|-|Voting History=
Episode	Monica'sVotes	Voted AgainstMonica
1 	 	
2 	 	
3 	 	
4 	 	
5 	 	
 	 	
</tabber>
==Post-Survivor==
* On January 9, 2010, Monica attended 's 10-year anniversary party.
* Monica appeared in a short movie drama titled Hush, which released in 2016, playing a character named Marie.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5203908/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1
* Monica attended the Survivor edition of primetime special that aired on May 23, 2016.https://twitter.com/fymaxwell/status/734902772483526658 However, Monica herself did not compete.
* In November 2019, Monica attended the wedding of castmate Joe Anglim and Sierra Dawn Thomas.https://people.com/tv/survivor-joe-anglim-sierra-dawn-thomas-marry/
* Monica married her long-time boyfriend David Quinney on October 23, 2020.https://www.instagram.com/p/CP-_jvyMrDKA7htIjEt5uSreWNELmuUugsw1nc0/
**On May 4, 2023, Monica announced that they were expecting their first child.https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr0SgBQuNWs/ Their son, David Eccles Quinney IV, was born August 15, 2023.https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwm5Cb8Lvu3Ycsm7Lan0-ucHZhomlsDez9168E0/?img_index=1
==Trivia==
* Monica was recruited to compete on .https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/35zyub/monica_padilla_ama/cr9gfdt
* Monica is the youngest woman on the Galu tribe.
* Monica is the only member of Galu to enter the merge with votes cast against her.
* In , Monica was voted out one day short of her 25th birthday.
* Monica lost 16 lbs. during her time in Samoa.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxSoAdakHXA
* Both times Monica played, she played with one of the Morett women. A similar coincidence happened with Terry Deitz playing with one of the Baskauskas brothers, and Troyzan Robertson playing with one of the Culpeppers.
* Monica was surprised that Shane Powers, Teresa Cooper, and Mikayla Wingle did not make the final cast of , calling the latter two strong women.
** Conversely, Monica was frequently mentioned by fellow contestants as the most surprising castaway that did make the final cast.http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/28/survivor-cambodia-second-chance-cast-video
* Monica is the lowest-placing member of the original Bayon tribe, and the only original Bayon member to not reach the merge.
==References==
Category:Contestants
Category:Female Contestants
Category:Latin American Contestants
Category:Contestants Appearing in Multiple Seasons
Category:Samoa Contestants
Category:Cambodia Contestants
Category:Samoa Jury Members
Category:Galu Tribe
Category:Aiga Tribe
Category:Bayon Tribe
Category:7th Place
Category:16th Place
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Survivor (U.S.) Contestants
Category:Survivor: Samoa
Category:Survivor: Cambodia
Category:1984 births
Category:Living people