Ziya Bakshi

* 25
* 24

**Ziya Bakshi** is a castaway from *Survivor 24* and *Survivor 25*.

Originally placed on the Younger Women tribe in *24*, Ziya became an early strategic player, often failing to downplay her threat level, leading to her catching votes at Tribal Council and being in a deadlock vote. Surviving the six pre-merge Tribal Councils, Ziya managed to make the merge, before the tribe voted her out for being too big of a threat to keep around, one cycle short of the jury phase.

Returning as a Favorite for *25*, Ziya immediately formed a close friendship with new player Molan Bai where they became a public enemies within the tribe. As two of the biggest strategic players in the game, they strategically maneuvered their way to the tribe swap, where they joined the Swapped Berhala Alliance that held control until merge. Despite being outnumbered initially at the merge, they gained control for two votes before Ziya was flipped against by Kasey Portero after being forced to stop playing the middle.

## Profile

* Survivor 25

**Age:** 22**Current Residence:** New Haven, Connecticut**Occupation:** Pre-Law Student

## Survivor

### Survivor 24

**^1**  In "", the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Drew and Ziya, forcing a revote. Braydon and Todd changed their votes on the revote, but still tied the vote, forcing a unanimous decision tiebreaker. On the tiebreaker, Ziya did not receive any votes to be eliminated.
**^2**  In "", Ziya wagered her vote at the Summit for an idol. Because Kenza and Selim also chose to risk his vote, Ziya became ineligible to vote at Tribal Council.
**^3**  In "", Bronze used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating Ziya's vote against him.

### Survivor 25

Ziya returned as one of ten Favorites that comprised the Berhala tribe. Ziya instantly became close with Molan Bai, forming an obvious duo within the tribe. After Berhala lost the first immunity challenge, they were sent to their first Tribal Council where Ziya wanted to get rid of her other season representative, Kenza Bannani. At Tribal Council, Ziya felt confident that Kenza would be the one sent home, but was surprised when the votes did not get in her favor. Kenza became aware almost immediately that Ziya attempted to take her out of the game, causing Kenza to target Ziya and Molan for being a duo. When Berhala lost their second immunity challenge sending them back to Tribal Council. Ziya's original plan of taking out Kenza did not gain enough traction to continue therefore she shifted her sights on her ally, Ahmad Maseeh. While the entire tribe seemed set on taking out Molan or Ziya, they were able to convince Kasey Portero and Sammie Woodside to stick with the women of the tribe. At Tribal Council, their plan worked and the four of them went against the tribe's plan to split the votes, giving them the power to take out Ahmad. Although they felt content with their standing in the tribe, they avoided the following Tribal Council by winning the next Immunity Challenge. During their day off of Tribal Council, Kenza brought the idea to Molan and Ziya to work together along with Jax Nicholson, which they agreed in an effort to take the heat off of them.

On Day 10, the new alliance of four stayed on the Berhala tribe along with four members from the Fans tribe. When their alliance stayed together through the merge, the four of them took it as a sign from the Survivor Gods. However, despite their luck with staying together, their streak of losing continued as they were sent to two back-to-back Tribal Councils where they capitalized on swaying Danica Boiko and Francine Lamb to their side to vote out Jalen Bailey and Malayiah Howard. They were able to win one immunity challenge to allow them a few days of security, but lost the following immunity challenge. With the alliance having to turn against the six members working together, the core Favorites decided to stay together to vote out Danica. However, at Tribal Council, Kenza, Molan and Ziya were surprised by Jax's leap at the opportunity to flip against Ziya. When it became clear to Jax that Kenza was going to stay loyal to the alliance, Jax flipped back to their side to vote Danica out of the game.

On Day 20, the two tribes came together to merge as the Alyak tribe. With Kenza, Molan and Ziya feeling burned by Jax, they attempted to link together with Ben Dubois and Sammie Woodside alongside Francine to form a new majority alliance of six. All the while, the swapped tribe Pemuja solidified their pact to stay together through the merge to take out the swapped members of the Berhala tribe. Jax swore his loyalty to the swapped members of the Berhala tribe, making a potential alliance of seven. Ziya felt confident in their alliance to take control of the game, but at Tribal Council, Ben and Sammie stuck their loyalty with the swapped Pemuja tribe, blindsiding Kenza in a 7-5 vote. Ziya was one of the five, along with Francine, Molan, Sammie and Talon, to win the reward challenge. On the reward, the three of them attempted to pull Sammie and Talon Rowe to their side. However, still feeling in a minority position, Ziya took it upon herself to try to find a Hidden Immunity Idol, which she came up unlucky. Returning from the immunity challenge without immunity, Molan and Ziya targeted the weakest member in their alliance, Ben, also wanting revenge on flipping against them. The two of them worked hard on flipping Kasey in their favor, feeling optimistic that she would save them. At Tribal Council, their persistent efforts paid off when Kasey and Talon flipped to their side to vote Ben out with a Hidden Immunity Idol.

With a new line being drawn in the sand, the swapped Berhala held a majority with Kasey and Talon on their side. Molan and Ziya agreed with each other that they wanted four powerful women at the end game and formed a four person alliance with Francine and Kasey. With their third tribal council looming, the opposing alliance set their sights on Ziya while Molan and Ziya let Kasey control who went next as a thank you for saving their games. Kasey decided on Adrianna Crawford and the alliance went along with her plan to eliminate her in a 5-4-1 vote. However, at the following Tribal Council, unaware to Ziya, Kasey was attempting to play both sides. When both alliances wanted to target someone from her opposing alliances, Kasey was forced to make a decision. In the end, Kasey, Talon and Jax flipped against Ziya, voting her out on Day 30, during the first vote of the Double Elimination.

#### Voting History

**^1**  In "", the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Danica, and Ziya, forcing a revote. On the revote, Ziya did not receive enough votes to be eliminated.

## Trivia

 **Days spent on Redemption Island:** | N/A

* Ziya is the first contestant to survive a deadlock vote, not resulting in a rock draw.
* Ziya is the first contestant to be involved in a tie-vote in two different seasons.
* Ziya attended the most Tribal Councils in both of the seasons she competed in.
	+ Ziya tied for most Tribal Councils attended in *25* with Jax Nicholson and Molan Bai.