Mike White is the name on everyone’s lips. Well, at least it is for those who feel personally victimised by the devastating The White Lotus season finale that dropped earlier this week.
White is the brains behind the beloved HBO series for which he has won three Emmy Awards.
But long before The White Lotus entered the chat and captured the attention of millions, he was a reality TV icon.
Alongside several impressive credits as a writer and director, White managed to squeeze “reality TV contestant” onto his CV not just once but twice and threads of that experience can be seen woven into his most recent project.
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The writer, producer, director and actor has long been a superfan of the popular reality TV format Survivor, and even had a close connection with its host and executive producer Jeff Probst, per IndieWire.
After hounding producers for years, White scored himself a spot in the cast of the 37th season David vs. Goliath.
“The truth is I was a Survivor fanatic from the beginning,” he told IndieWire in 2018.
“After watching around 35 seasons, my philosophy is, don’t just be a spectator – be a participant. It took a while for me to convince them. But I was down to do it for years.”
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His knowledge of the game was evident as he progressed through the season.
He was the mastermind behind several strategic moves in the game, built some memorable alliances with other tribe members and managed to make it all the way to the final three, but ended up losing out to the season winner Nick Wilson.
White is remembered among Survivor fans as an icon of the show and one of its greatest narrators, having made several clever observations in the vox-pop style interviews the show is known for.
The widely-popular The White Lotus is a far cry from the world of competitive reality TV but nods to Survivor can be seen speckled throughout the show.
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Like Survivor, The White Lotus sees strangers from different walks of life come together in a new location and both shows navigate varying social dynamics and power struggles.
White’s observation of different social dynamics in Survivor may have inspired the social dynamics in the show and he even gave some of his castmates, Alec Merlino, Angelina Keeley, Kara Kay and Natalie Cole, cameos.
“Survivor is not that dissimilar [to The White Lotus], which is a lot of times just people kind of kvetching about who’s tending the fire, or they’re hangry because they haven’t had anything to eat, but then the music is making it feel like this is going to end up bad for somebody,” he acknowledged in conversation with NPR.
“And then you have these transitions of sharks in the water. And I was like, we do that in White Lotus.
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“I have to cop to being influenced by Survivor and these shows where you have a device that makes it feel like it’s a built-in cliffhanger.”
While White’s love for Survivor has been long-lasting, it’s not the only reality TV show his dipped his toe into.
Before he featured on the 37th season of the reality show, White starred as a contestant on The Amazing Race in 2009. He joined the global scavenger hunt-type competition show with his dad Mel and they came out in sixth place.
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The White Lotus cast reunite before finale that has the world talking
Reality TV aside, White’s main work is in creating TV and movies. Of course, we know he is the mastermind behind The White Lotus but he has played a role in several other well-known hits that you may not have realised.
Most notably, White wrote the widely popular film School of Rock, which features Jack Black. On top of writing it, he also starred in the film as Ned Schneebly, the roommate of Black’s character Dewey Finn.
He also wrote the film The Good Girl, which stars Hollywood heavyweights Jen Aniston, Zooey Deschanel and Jake Gyllenhaal, and has writing credits on films including Pitch Perfect 3, Despicable Me 4 and The Emoji Movie.
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Overall, White has more than 50 writing, producing and acting credits to his name.
The White Lotus will be keeping him busy for the foreseeable future with the fourth season of the show being officially greenlit back in January.
But with such a diverse array of talents both on and off screen, it’s really anyone’s guess where he goes next.
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