Aras Vydunas Baskauskas (Lithuanian: Bakauskas) (born September 26, 1981) is a reality TV personality who won Survivor: Panama and competed in Survivor: Blood vs. Water.

Early life

Baskauskas is the grandson of the prominent actor Macdonald Carey (1913-1994). He played collegiate NCAA Division I basketball at UC Irvine from 2000 to 2004, where he was honored as a Big West Conference scholar athlete for three seasons. He received his B.A. in philosophy in 2002, and his MBA in 2004. After college, he had the chance to sign a contract with a professional basketball club Alita in Lithuania, but he decided to go to South Africa instead to learn more about yoga.

Survivor

Panama

In Survivor: Panama, Baskauskas was originally part of the "Viveros" tribe of younger men, until a tribal swap early on had him become a member of the "Casaya" tribe, where he formed an early alliance with Shane Powers, Courtney Marit and Danielle DiLorenzo. When the tribes merged, the former Casaya tribe members (himself, Powers, Marit, DiLorenzo, Bruce Kenagai, and Cirie Fields) had a number advantage against the four former La Mina tribe members. The former Casaya members proceeded to vote out the entire former La Mina tribe, excluding Terry Deitz, who won nearly all of the immunity challenges. When the alliance had nowhere left to turn but on each other, Baskauskas and Powers targeted DiLorenzo, but she, Marit, and Deitz wanted to vote out Baskauskas. Not happy with any of these options, Fields brewed a plan of her own, and together with Baskauskas and DiLorenzo, voted out Marit, followed by Powers. At the final four challenge, Baskauskas won immunity. Dietz, due to the widely known fact that he possessed the hidden immunity idol, was also safe. This created a 2-2 tie between DiLorenzo and Fields, who competed in a fire-building challenge to determine their fate. DiLorenzo won the challenge and Fields was eliminated.

At the final immunity challenge, DiLorenzo out-balanced the two men to win immunity, giving her the power to choose her opponent for the Final Two. DiLorenzo eventually chose to eliminate Dietz, making him the final member of the jury and propelling Baskauskas into the Final Two. On Day 39, while he and DiLorenzo walked on the rocks by the ocean, Baskauskas slipped on a wet rock and fell, sending shards of glass into his hand and back. His wounds required stitches by the medical crew, but no medical evacuation. In the end, Baskauskas beat out DiLorenzo to become the Sole Survivor in a 5-2 vote, gaining the votes of Austin Carty, Sally Schumann, Marit, Fields and Deitz.

Blood vs. Water

Baskauskas returned for the show's 27th season, Survivor: Blood vs. Water, alongside his older brother, Vytas. After a tribe swap, Aras was placed on the new "Tadhana" tribe, alongside fellow returning players Tyson Apostol and Gervase Peterson, as well as newcomers Hayden Moss, Caleb Bankston, and Ciera Eastin. Due to his performance in Panama, as well as the fact that he was the only tribe member who still had a loved one left in the game, Apostol rallied all the other tribe members into an alliance to eliminate Aras in 11th place, making him the first jury member. Shortly afterwards, the merge came and Apostol's alliance also eliminated Vytas in 10th place. In the final tribal council, Aras cast his vote for Apostol to win the $1 million prize, while Vytas was the sole jury member to cast his vote for someone other than Apostol, instead voting for Monica Culpepper.

Music career

In 2011, Baskauskas released his debut album, The Tree and the River, under the stage name of "Odd Us".

Personal life

Baskauskas married his girlfriend of four years, Christy Petersen. Christy is a model and clothing designer, and gave birth to their first child on May 29, 2014. They announced the birth of their son, River, via Instagram.

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