Matthew Laken

Matthew Laken is known for competing in Survivor: Africa.

Early in the game, Matthew was seen as a strong player physically. He also got along well with his tribe. These kept him around and helped him avoid being voted off. After a tribe swap, Matthew was put in a bad position because two people saw him as a physical threat for the merge. This caused him to get voted out on Day 18 in a deadlock tie.

Profile
Matthew was born as an only child in Encino, California. He lived in a house with his parents, aunt and uncle, and 3 cousins. At a young age, Matthew took an interest in acting and got the lead role in his kindergarten play. He went to high school and got inducted as a thespian. After college, he got into musicals and even tried to get on to movies and TV shows. Matthew is currently single and resides in Los Angeles.

Survivor
Matthew was originally placed on the Samburu tribe. When Alejandro Garcia was leading the tribe to camp, Matthew was worried that he would get them lost. It turns out they were going in the wrong direction, much to Matthew's chagrin. Garrett Klein took the lead and found the camp. When they, Matthew led the tribe around camp and assigned tasks. Surprisingly, everyone was glad with what they got. Matthew was especially impressed with how hard Terra Hastle worked. During the first immunity challenge, Matthew led the tribe to victory, even with Faith Jackson and Francine Sector stalling behind. They won immunity and Matthew was safe for three more days.

On Day 4, Matthew got to know Alejandro a bit more and they became friends. Matthew noticed that Terra was going slower with her work and realized she was feeling sick. Matthew, along with the rest of the tribe, tried to help her feel better. When she couldn't recover by the immunity challenge, she sat out. But Samburu lost the immunity challenge and Terra was voted out for concerns of her health. After Terra left, work around camp became harder because she did most of the work. Everything basically went downhill from there, they even lost the next immunity challenge. Either Faith or Alejandro were going home because of their positions in the tribe. At tribal council, Alejandro was unanimously voted off.

Everyone was really hoping to pull a win at the next immunity challenge. They managed to pull a win when Faith led the tribe to victory, causing a giant celebration at camp. On Day 13, there was a tribe switch and Matthew was switched to the rival tribe, Boran with Francine. When they arrived, Rob Patterson and CeCelia Taylor welcomed them with open arms, but they all were still aware that it was two tribes in one. Matthew spoke with Francine about who to possibly vote next, but she wasn't sure. They didn't have to worry because Boran won the first immunity after the tribe swap.

Matthew still didn't feel safe after winning the next challenge because he knew he would be a physical threat for the merge. He tried swinging both CeCelia and Rob to their side to probably vote out the other, but they declined. When the immunity challenge came, the pressure got to Matthew which slowed them down and they ended up losing. After returning to camp, Matthew and Francine agreed to vote out CeCelia because she didn't pull her weight around camp. They tried swinging Rob but he still declined. By this point, everyone knew it would be a tie and left it to chance at a deadlock tie. At tribal council, everyone's prediction was correct and it was a deadlocked tie. Matthew and Francine voted for CeCelia, but CeCelia and Rob voted for Matthew. When it came down to whoever had the most votes between Matthew and CeCelia, Matthew was voted out because he received a vote from earlier in the game. He was voted out on Day 18.

Post-Survivor

 * Matthew worked on the set of Spongebob Squarepants: The Musical.
 * Matthew started dating actress, Lily Jane Varela.

Trivia

 * Matthew is the first male contestant voted out in a deadlock tie.
 * He's the first and only contestant voted out due to past votes.