Meet the 'Survivor 45' Cast! Janani "J. Maya" Krishnan-Ja Talks a Life of Taking Big Risks
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Ever since she was a child, Janani "J. Maya" Krishnan-Ja has been obsessed with adventures. Fantasy novels allowed her to escape an isolating upbringing. When she found her path to Harvard Law wasn't satisfactory, she made a major shift in becoming a singer-songwriter after her music went viral on TikTok. The 24-year-old hopes her creativity and risk-taking can translate from the written page to the Survivor stage, as she's looking at some on-island women bandmates in the hopes that this bookworm gets a happy ending.
Read on for my interview with J. Maya, and check in with Parade.com every day for interviews with this season's contestants and other tidbits. Survivor 45 premieres on September 27 with a 90-minute premiere on CBS.
Related: Meet the Full Cast of Survivor 45
Interview with J. Maya from Survivor 45
To start, tell me about yourself.
I am J. J is short for my full artist's name, which is J. Maya. I'm 24. I'm from San Francisco, California, originally, but I'm based now in Los Angeles, California. And I'm a singer-songwriter.
Talk to me about how you got there. I know you probably grew up with a song in your heart, but this isn't something you've been doing your entire life. How did you end up becoming a singer-songwriter?
So, growing up, I think I internalized a lot of the pressure from my community and family to pursue a very traditional path. So, I am Indian-American; my parents both immigrated to this country late in their lives. And they had this dream that one of their children would attend what they perceived to be the most prestigious institution, which is, in their minds, Harvard Law School. I think, genuinely, part of it comes from having watched Legally Blonde. I get it; it's a phenomenal film. [Laughs.] But growing up, I looked at my parents, and I was like, "They've sacrificed so much for me even to be here that I want to help make their dreams come true, in addition to just being a good daughter."
I decided that it was my one-track mission that I was gonna get into Harvard Law School. And that's been my life goal since I was eight years old. And I did everything exactly right, even though I've always been a really creative person, and I naturally gravitated toward writing. I channeled all of that into debate. So, in high school, I was a debater. And I ended up getting into Harvard. And at Harvard, I traveled around the world doing collegiate debate. I won a ton of awards, and I actually ended up getting accepted early to Harvard Law School when I was a junior in college still. And then alarm bells rang. I think I just realized, in that moment of getting accepted, that this was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life. And I was miserable.
I didn't want to go to law school. But I decided that I couldn't just immediately abruptly give it up because it meant so much to so many people. So what I started to do is, in my senior year of college, and then the pandemic, I started uploading acoustic demos of songs that I had written to TikTok under an anonymous name, J. Maya, which is not my real name. [Laughs.] And one of the songs one day went viral. No one in my life knew that I wrote songs. Not a single friend, not a parent, not a family member, not a previous boyfriend. It was something I kept completely secret. But somehow found the courage to tell my parents, "A. I am not going to law school, B. I write songs, C. One of said songs went viral, and D. I'm moving to L.A., and I'm going to be a professional full-time singer-songwriter." And here we are two years later, and I've kind of made it happen somehow. [Laughs.]
So then, let's talk about the next verse of your life in coming onto Survivor. You just talked about making a big move, and now you're about to enter a game full of them. What made you decide to explore this experience after making such a huge shift only a couple of years ago?
I love this question. Because to me, Survivor is a microcosm of life experience. And for me, going through this experience a couple of years ago of having to make this crossroads decision. One road being extremely safe, one that I knew [and] I was prepared for. And then the other road being a complete unknown, starting from scratch, essentially, coming into the music industry with no experience and no connections and knowing nothing about what I was supposed to do, but a road that was still so enticing.
Making that decision and having it turn out well was a big life lesson for me because I realized that you get no reward without risk-taking. And I think it sets me up well for a game where you ultimately do have to make bold moves if you want to be rewarded. And so I think that's part of it is just learning, through experience, how valuable it can be to take big, bold risks in your life.
And then another piece of this whole puzzle to me is that a big part of who I am is we're all kind of searching for the inner child amidst all of the chaos of our lives. And I grew up someone who had their head in a book 24/7. For me, reading has always been a huge escape. The music I write, funnily enough, people call it "nerd pop" because I talk so much about books and crossword puzzles and language and puns. It's just who I am. And growing up, I didn't have a lot of friends because I was a bit of an outsider. I grew up in a really white town, and I am Indian-American. And reading was an escape for me. The books that I would gravitate toward more than any other were adventure novels and fantasy novels, stories of kids going on big quests to save the world.
I just grew up with this dream in my heart that, however ludicrous it sounded, one day, I would get to go on a quest like that of my own. But then you realize, "Okay, life isn't like that. Quests don't really exist." Until I came across Survivor. And I was like, "This is as close to a big adventure that you can get in one's lifetime." And from then on, it just kind of imprinted in my brain. I was like, "This is the way to make my inner child proud." This is an experience that is so new to me. I'm stepping into it. I don't have any experience in this world. But the thrill of it all, how unknown it is, what a challenge it is.
So, how does this incorporate into your history with watching Survivor? I'm assuming this helped your kid-like fantasies of going on a big jungle adventure.[Laughs.] Yeah. Survivor was on when I was growing up because my parents watched it. And for me, I was pretty insulated. I grew up in America; I was born and raised here. But I grew up in a really strict Indian household. And I didn't get a lot of insight as to what traditional American media was. [Laughs.] So Survivor was just kind of one of those shows that was on growing up. And I just saw it and was like, "This is the coolest thing ever. This is American media at its finest." But the truth is, I didn't have a lot of other things to compare it to. [Laughs.] And you know what, now that I do, it still is phenomenal television. So I stand by that.
But I will say I came into Survivor personally, in my own life, two or three years ago. It's always been in my peripheral vision. But it wasn't until the pandemic that I really started getting into it because I would watch it on Netflix. I truly believe that things happen for a reason. I'm a really proud Hindu; it's a big part of who I am. And we really do believe in the universe and karmic energy. I believe that Survivor came into my life at a time when it needed to, because that was right at the cusp of me making my big decision, taking my big adventure, to leave what I knew to be true and pursue an adventure on the other side of the country. And for me, I think it all is so full circle because it makes sense that it came into my life at that time. And now that I'm on the other side of that big decision to be on the show, it feels really full circle to me.
Give me one Survivor winner and one non-winner who you identify with the most.
Well, my "quasi-loser" is Parvati. [Laughs.] I don't know how many people know this, but the name Parvati comes from Hinduism. It's the name of a really powerful Hindu goddess. And I am also named after a very powerful Hindu goddess, so I feel a soul connection with her. [Laughs.]
But seriously, I think she was one of the players I watched early on that really represented to me what it means to wield others' perception of you to your advantage. I think, especially in her first season, she had this reputation for being a flirt maybe and being bubbly and fun. And I think people tend to discount women who show those traits because they think that they don't have that strong, ruthless edge in them hidden behind all of those layers of niceness. I just saw in her from the first moment that she's a really complex woman and brilliant. She was able to leverage other people's perception of her to her advantage and craft this really strategic game around it. So, she is someone I've always really looked up to and admired.
And I would say a winner…I'm gonna be horrible and give you two quick winners because I can't pick between them. The first is Maryanne because, similarly, I think Maryanne is a genius at leveraging other people's perceptions. Her having a good read as to where she stands in the game, having the self-awareness to understand how people see her, and then brilliantly using it to her advantage. I love her final Tribal performance more than any that I've seen because you see how methodical she's been from the beginning. And you see people's reactions as they learn that she's been this strategic mastermind the whole time. I think it's just so satisfying to watch that; she's so good at what she does. And then, just because she was a big role model to me growing up, Natalie. It's just awesome to see brown women on the screen rocking it. Hell, yeah! So she's a big inspiration to me as well.
You come from the entertainment industry, where image and brand are everything. How do you think your competitors will perceive you?
I think people will see me as a bubbly personality. It's something that I think I'll definitely try to get across. I think I have a lot of facets to who I am. And they're all valid because we're all complex human beings. But I think I can be both very bubbly and social, and also very introspective and thinking inwardly. And I think I'm going to try to bring out the first part of myself as much as possible, because I think it throws people off guard a little bit in a good way. It doesn't make them see you as someone who's scheming and plotting and potentially a threat. And I think I'm also going to play up the part of my personality that exists in the music industry: Big and bold and fun. And then try to privately have those moments of reflection and thinking about where in the game I can fit myself. But I think it's going to be bubbly and hopefully fun. I'm also going to make a lot of puns. So, I think people might get a little annoyed at some point about that. [Laughs.]
Related: Everything to Know About Survivor 45
I may not be playing, but I know I won't. Well, let's turn that perception on its head. As you're looking at these other players who will form your Survivor band, are there any who stick out for good or bad?
Oh, my gosh, that's so hard because we haven't been talking to each other. So it's all based on glances and looking at what people are reading. [Laughs.] Total covert operations. Well, I'll say the obvious, which is that Bruce is on our season, which is very exciting. Even before he was medically evacuated on his season, he was one of the first people I saw and was just like, "That person seems like he knows the game, and he knows what's going on." I think it'd be awesome to get to work with Bruce at some point in the game. We'll see. We'll see how that pans out.
But I will say I am a bit hesitant because I think he will be held in such high regard and high favor as he should be. He's an amazing player, and it's so awesome he gets the chance to come back and do this again. It's just something to be wary of. You don't want someone in your alliance who's too crucial to the game. [Laughs.] Otherwise, you're gonna be the first to go if your alliance is under fire. So that's something I'm thinking about right now.
Other than that, I would say that I love the energy of everyone that I've seen so far. But something that I'm definitely planning to do and would love to do is just work with women. I think we've seen a trend in the last few seasons of young women going home very early. And I think, in part, that's due to the three-tribe structure and perceived tribe strength as it pertains to challenges. And I think it would be awesome to just come into my tribe and talk to the women and say, "It's either us or them. So why don't we just band together, see how far we can make it as a crew, and then figure it out from there?" And I will also say that this group of people looks remarkably young. There are only a couple of people who are, I would say, not even in their thirties. It skews really young. I mean, I wouldn't even be shocked if the season had a theme as it pertains to age. I have no idea. But I relate a lot with young women. And so we'll see if that happens naturally on the tribe. [But with] all the women, the energy seems great so far.
What celebrity or fictional character would you want to come out for a Loved Ones visit?
I'm absolutely going to fictional character direction because that's an amazing question. As a bookworm, I am going to have to tie between two answers that just immediately spring to mind. The first is Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games novels. Because who better to help you with the strategy of the game? [Laughs.] To help you pinpoint who to be allying with. She'd be great.
And then the other character is Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson series. The Percy Jackson series is the series that got me into reading. I've been rereading it here at pregame because I've been wanting to remind myself of the spirit of adventure that I was obsessed with as a kid in reading. So she's been on my mind a lot. And I think both of these characters are women who would just rise to the challenge. I know I will struggle with coming into the game by just getting in my own head and not trusting my gut and instinct because I think I can be a bit of an anxious person. And I think both of those women would just tell me to snap out of it and do what needs to be done. And I think I would appreciate that. [Laughs.]
Next, check out our Survivor 45 interview with contestant Drew Basile.
