Manu Bravo

**Manu Bravo** is a contestant from *Survivor 26*. Prior to competing in *PM Survivor*, he is best known for winning  *Big Brother 13*.

Initially stirring up drama within the Mogok tribe from behind the scenes, Manu's game allowed him to combine social and strategy together by securing control over the game and creating close allies with Maria Castillo and Jessie Bennett. After the merge, Manu looked out for the best interest of him and his girlfriend, Mandy Ramos, by working with the majority until he seized control over the end-game by taking out the two former Sole Survivors. However, his game ultimately faced backlash after his decision to send Jessie to a fire-making challenge in favor of Mandy, then choosing to remove her from the jury after winning the Remove A Juror Advantage. Manu would come up one jury vote short of the title of Sole Survivor to Maria in a 4-3-1 vote.

## Profile

**Age:** 32

**Current Residence:** Los Angeles, Ca.

**Relationship to Significant Castaway:** Mandy's Boyfriend

**Occupation:** Actor

## Survivor

Manu entered the game as a former winner of the PM BB series along with his girlfriend, Mandy Ramos. Initially being rubbed the wrong way by Olivia Cortinas and linking her sister and three-time player, Carla Yarto, she was given a target on her back. Starting with Randall Harris to try to start waves to turn them against each other from the jump which would prove successful when Randall went on a campaign spree for Olivia to become the first person voted out of the tribe.

Being sent to Exile Island twice within eleven days, Manu used his clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol to build a strong connection with Maria Castillo by revealing the clue and searching together. Unfortunate for them, the idol had already been in someone else's possession. As a rising pair within the Mogok tribe, Manu and Maria were approached by Davon Hendrix to form a final three that allowed them to control the last vote before the Tribe Switch.

At the tribe switch, Manu remained on the Mogok tribe with Davon and Maria, along with fellow tribe members Randall and Jessie Bennett. However, their original tribal lines took a hit early when Randall and Jessie went after Davon, leading Manu to try to spearhead Randall's vote off. In the end, Manu was unable to get his way and jumped ship in order to unite the tribe. His move to stay loyal to Randall and Jessie payed off at their following Tribal Council when the target shifted to Camron Harris instead of him. Once again voting with his tribe, Manu survived the vote.

On Day 21, the two tribes came together to form the Kanaryo tribe, which he was reunited with his girlfriend, Mandy. Although becoming weaker mentally throughout his time in the game, Canyon Christensen, Darrell Castillo and Randall believed Manu was the smartest player on the opposing side of their alliance. With their original final three losing a member, Maria and Manu became each other's final two outside of their loved ones and vowed to protect each other. After losing the immunity challenge, Maria believed the best player to get out of the game would be Zoey Cassidy, but Manu attempted to convince Maria that Randall would be the best move. Maria was able to convince Manu that Zoey was the final decision, but Manu rallied Mandy and Naya Emerson to throw votes on Randall in the result of an idol play. Their plan worked successfully, and Zoey was voted out with Manu's split vote protecting him in case of an idol.

Having voted out her sister, Manu became skeptical of Jessie's loyalty to his alliance. Manu floated the idea to Maria and Mandy about taking out Jessie shortly after to avoid any blowback from their move, but once again, Maria was more influential and convinced their side to vote out Fay Johnson. Seeing his influence in the game become less each day, Manu attempted to convince Maria to work with Mandy, Canyon and Naya. But when Jessie and Kenan Grover wanted Manu and Maria to prove that they weren't being used as numbers in her game, Manu was forced into turning against his plans moving forward to prevent the target from being shifted back onto him. However, Kenan took action first by trying to Kenan convince Jessie, Naya and Randall to flip against Manu. However, the news leaked to Darrell who leaked his plan to Maria. Maria would go on to tell Manu, where they were able to gather enough support to vote Kenan out.

Only having full trust with Mandy, Maria and Jessie, Manu decided to work with the four of them to the end of the game, and take out anyone standing in his way. His target first went to Naya for being a former winner in the game. Having the same mindset, Manu and Jessie, were able to take the reigns from Maria and convince the tribe to unanimously vote her out of the game. As Randall followed Naya on the way out, the only obstacle in his way to the end was Darrell and Sophie Chang. Despite Sophie being on an immunity streak, Manu wanted Darrell to be the next one voted out, so Maria's loyalty would be completely with him. Desperate to be saved from elimination, Sophie agreed to vote however Manu wanted, along with his unconditional support from Mandy, they already garnered 3 votes. With Jessie hopping on board, Manu went to Maria to ask her to vote with them to prevent the alliance from turning against her at the next vote. In the end, Manu successfully convinced Maria to send her husband to the jury.

The following day, Manu and Mandy worked with Maria to vote Sophie out of the game and secure themselves a spot in the final four. His plan to end in the final four with three people who would never vote him out proved superior when he lost the final immunity challenge and avoided a fire-challenge that he forced by standing by Mandy's side to vote Jessie, which she would lose.

In a surprise twist, Mandy, Manu and Maria were provided with an additional challenge that gave one of them the power to remove any jury member from attending Final Tribal Council. Manu beat both of them in the challenge. Despite both Manu having a close connection with Jessie, Manu explained that removing Jessie from the jury would be the most fair option, but alternatively was a move to give Maria one less vote at the Final Tribal Council since she provided her with a chance to compete in the fire challenge.

At Final Tribal Council, Manu's game was summed up to a game of control and social strategy that allowed him to be in multiple alliances that allowed him to be seen as a threat in the game, but never too big of a threat to be voted out of the game. Manu explains that he was able to spearhead the vote offs of the only two previous Sole Survivors in the game which allowed him to control the end-game to get him and Mandy to the end, whereas he explained Maria was unable to control the end-game and reach the end with her loved one. However, Zoey was pissed that Manu worked with Jessie until Day 37 and chose to remove her from the jury despite playing the game to her best ability. Multiple jurors agreed that Manu's move to remove Jessie was seen as a grimy move. Enough so that Manu would lose the title of Sole Survivor to Maria in a 4-3-1 vote.

## Trivia

* Manu is the first contestant in *Survivor 26* to visit Exile Island twice.
* Manu is the only member of the Final Three to never win an Individual Immunity Challenge.