BELIZE — A Richmond High School graduate recently survived two weeks in the Belizean jungle with nothing but fishing gear.
Danni Kelly, a 2010 RHS and 2016 Ball State University grad and currently a wildlife biologist, is the latest Wayne County native to appear on reality television.
Kelly debuted on Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid” in its May 4 episode, where she was tasked with surviving 14 days with two strangers in the mosquito-infested jungles of Belize.
On the night of its airing, Richmond’s Red Front Pizza & Grill, where her mom works, hosted a watch party. Kelly was there to meet and talk to fans, while also seeing the episode for the first time herself.
Cheers erupted from patrons when Kelly first appeared on several of the TV screens showing the episode, with the same response elicited once it became apparent that she had made it through all 14 days.
What is ‘Naked and Afraid’?
“Naked and Afraid,” now in its 18th season, is a survival reality show that pairs strangers together without clothes as they try to survive in a variety of extreme environments, such as the Louisiana Bayou, the Florida Everglades and the Madagascan desert, among others.
The show has had a variety of formats throughout its run, with most tasked with surviving 21 days. Before the 21-day challenge, however, participants have to survive a 14-day fan challenge.
Kelly said she is now eligible to participate in the 21-day challenge, with the possibility of 40 or even 60 days in later challenges.
The show also has a “Last One Standing” format that has a focus on competition with others rather than basic survival.
How did Kelly end up in Belize on ‘Naked and Afraid’?
Although she doesn’t consider herself a pro survivalist, Kelly said she is someone who is adventurous and is willing to go out and try anything.
Kelly had watched “Naked and Afraid” from time to time and was a fan of the show. She became bored one night while on the job as a public safety employee at Earlham College, where she works between projects and positions as a wildlife biologist.
“It was just one night when I had nothing to do at Earlham,” she said. “I was bored and I thought it would just be funny. I didn’t think I was going to get a call back at all. When they called me for the first interview to see if I would even be a possible person of interest for the show, I thought it was a joke.”
After being accepted, Kelly wasn’t sure whether she was going to be on this season, knowing that somebody else had been selected for a 21-day challenge. It wasn’t until a sudden phone call from producers that she knew she was going.
“Everything happened really fast,” she said. “They called me one night, randomly, and were like ‘If we book your plane not for tomorrow but the next day, will you be on it?’ I said sure.”
Kelly said producers usually give a little more notice so that participants have more time to prepare. But she thinks she was thrown in because she had previously done crocodile research in Belize in 2017.
“I worked with an organization known as the Crocodile Research Coalition,” she said. “One of my really good friends and mentors is the founder of the NGO, and when I graduated from Ball State, she said they were about to do a nationwide survey for Morelet’s crocodiles in Belize and I was like, ‘I’d love to be a part of that.’ We just went with it.”
Kelly’s passion for wildlife, aspirations to move to Australia
After graduating from Richmond High School, Kelly earned her undergraduate degree at Ball State, majoring in biology with a focus on wildlife biology and zoology.
From there, she pursued and earned her master’s in wildlife conservation and management at University College of Dublin.
“Wildlife is the end goal always. It’s never going to change,” Kelly said. “It’s been my passion since I was a child.”
Before she graduated from Ball State, Kelly had applied for residency in Australia and lived there for a year, with the intention of attending her dream school, University of Queensland in Brisbane.
“I was in my first year of Ball State, and I was like, ‘No, I want to go to my dream school,'” she said. “Well, we all know international tuition is very expensive, so my thought process was I’ll become a resident and then I’ll go finish my degree. But the only skill I had that I could become a resident of Australia with, at that time, were my equestrian skills.”
Kelly said one job available to her for sponsorship to live in Australia was as a jockey, but she started as a track rider for a stable because she didn’t have a license. Her plans eventually fell through when she found out that while the stable was in Australia, she couldn’t be sponsored because it was a New Zealand-based business.
Kelly’s passion for wildlife developed naturally, and it was reinforced by a variety of people, including David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and the Australian crocodile hunter himself, Steve Irwin.
“He inspired a whole generation to love wildlife,” she said. “All of them.”
Kelly said that although she primarily works with crocodiles, it’s not necessarily just because Irwin did.
“I love all wildlife, except for maybe mosquitoes,” she said. “What my real passion came from was that I like working with the animals that people fear. They tend to fear them based just off of myths and things that are picked up over different cultures. They don’t put the animals in the greatest light, like snakes seen as evil or crocs seen as aggressive. That’s not necessarily always the case with this wildlife. A lot of this wildlife doesn’t deserve the reputation it gets.”
Recently, Kelly was a state biologist for the state of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife’s Alligator Management Program. She stepped down from the role to take a new position in Hawaii for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services with the goal of becoming a federal wildlife officer.
While she’s technically still hired in Hawaii, Kelly said her job is one that is being eliminated because of Department of Government Efficiency cuts.
“Wildlife and environmentalism, all those were some of the first to be taken out with everything happening,” she said.
She has a residency application to move back to Australia but is in a state of limbo as she has had her expression of interest submitted for a year.
“You can’t apply for the actual visa until you hear back about your expression of interest,” she said. “So it’s just a waiting game with that. If there’s anywhere to be in nature, Australia is probably one of the best places to be. I fell in love with Australia when I lived there.”
What was Kelly’s experience like?
A post shared by Danni Brianne (@danni_b_wildin)
Upon being asked to go on the show, Kelly wasn’t aware of any of the details.
She didn’t know how many, if any, other people were already there.
She didn’t know another contestant pulled out because of a medical emergency back at home.
She didn’t know her partners were doing a 21-day challenge while she was doing a 14-day fan challenge.
“I don’t know that they’ve ever thrown someone in on a fan challenge when someone’s been doing 21 days,” she said. “That was new to me. I don’t know if it was new to the show. They’re trying to keep up the excitement with some surprises.”
Before the experience, each contestant is given an initial PSR, or Primitive Survival Rating, that estimates a person’s potential to thrive in the wilderness with limited resources.
Kelly’s rating was 6.2 on arrival and rose to a 6.7 on departure.
“I went out there with limited skills from what I picked up in my personal background of wildlife research, but the Belizean jungle just taught me how much I have to learn about true survivalists and what you need to know while you’re out there,” she said. “I definitely learned that I’m far more capable than I give myself credit for at times, but if I’m going to go back out there for any amount of time, I still have a lot to learn, and I’m willing to.”
Kelly said she felt she could go longer than the 14 days she was set for and that if they asked her to do an XL challenge today, or 40 days, she would accept it.
The only negative experiences were dealing with mosquitoes and the cold.
“I’ve lived and worked in rural areas, and obviously Belize, to some degree, has got a special place in my heart, but most of my time was spent on waterways where crocs usually are,” she said. “I’d been in the jungle a little bit, but nothing like where we were.
“Going in, I knew what my worst issues were going to be,” she said. “I knew I was going to have an issue with insects. I have an issue with them when I’m clothed, not that I’m scared of them, but that they just love me and I am always attacked. I hate them. The mosquitoes there were horrible. My whole body is scarred. I also knew that cold would be an issue. I’m not a cold person. You’d think growing up in Indiana, I’d be used to some degree of cold. I am not. I was born for the tropics.”
Although Belize is close to the equator, Kelly said that she was on the show during wet season and dealt with pouring rain and strong winds, which when coupled with being naked, made 50- and 60-degree weather feel much colder than it was.
“I think the show mentioned that you still have a chance of hypothermia, even in those conditions, because you don’t have any kind of protection,” she said.
As far as her partners, John and Omar, Kelly said she is still close to them and considers them to be family.
“When you’re out there, you get to know people better than some of the people you’ve known your whole life,” she said. “I know a lot of people are giving my partners s— right now. They want to say, I carried them. That’s a lot of what I’m seeing on social media right now. My partners were absolutely amazing. Not only are they great people and strong mentally, but they did a lot more than was shown, and we all had each other’s backs. They deserved every bit of their 21 days.”
Kelly also said she supported Malu, the contestant before her, deciding to go home to be with and care for her family after an emergency.
“The people who matter to you most matter more than a TV show,” she said. “Yes, it’s a challenge. Yes, it’s a great opportunity. But at the end of the day, what matters most to most people is their family and friends. I think she made the right decision, and I don’t fault her for it in any way. She killed her fan challenge and did great. I think she could have been in the 21 days.”
Kelly added that there are no physical requirements for being on the show, citing a double amputee being featured, and recommended anyone who wants to take part to sign up.
“I support anybody going out for the challenge,” she said. “If they’re interested, I’ll back them 100% and I can give them the link to the actual application. I think everyone should connect with nature, and it’ll be better for you to do so. If somebody thinks they have what it takes to make it through this challenge or even that they just feel like they need to try, there’s no reason not to.”
Growing Wayne County’s national exposure
Kelly’s appearance on “Naked and Afraid” marked at least the fourth known person tied to Wayne County to appear on a reality show since 2023.
In December 2023, Cambridge City’s Dougherty Orchard was featured on TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé,” followed by a Richmond waitress auditioning on “American Idol” and a Hagerstown native competing on “Love Island USA” in 2024.
Kelly said the increased national exposure for Richmond puts it in a good light.
“That is so good for Richmond, because Richmond is a beautiful community,” she said. “I know people give it a lot of s—, to put it nicely, but there are a lot of great communities here. I know they’re doing a lot downtown to fix it up. Earlham itself has been great for the community. There’s just so much support all around and everyone’s doing its best to put Richmond on the map as a place to live and grow. I still come back every time I’m in between positions, as much as you know you sometimes want to get out of it. I’m genuinely lucky to grow up in a place like Richmond.”
For the watch party, Kelly said she was “blown away” by how many people attended and said fame isn’t her goal.
“I didn’t think there would be that many people in our community to come support me,” she said. “I know people get excited when somebody from their hometown is on TV, but I never expected it for me. Even with hoping that there’s more wildlife women on TV, my goal is outreach and education of wildlife. I couldn’t be more appreciative of our community to come out and support me, and I’m just overwhelmed.”
Kelly’s episode can be watched on a variety of streaming platforms, such as YouTube TV, HBO Max, Hulu and Discovery+.
Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Richmond High and Ball State grad appears on Discovery Channel’s ‘Naked and Afraid’
Reporting by Evan Weaver, Richmond Palladium-Item / Richmond Palladium-Item
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