Jeffrey Lee Probst (/proʊbst/; born November 4, 1961)[1] is an American television presenter and producer and young adult fiction writer.

[4] Soon after leaving college, he began working at Boeing Motion Picture/Television studio as a producer and later narrator of marketing and training videos.

Burnett was impressed by Probst's ability to garner honest answers from media trained celebrities and felt that his relative anonymity would allow the show to be built "from the ground up.

[9] On April 1, 2009, Probst appeared on the CBS reality television special I Get That a Lot, in which he worked a cash register.

In January 2012, Probst was announced as director of his second feature film, coming-of-age story Kiss Me, starring John Corbett and Sarah Bolger, with production scheduled to begin in Los Angeles the following month.

[11] Between October 2012 and January 2014, Probst hosted the recurring Adult Swim special, "The Greatest Event in Television History," which consisted of remakes of 1980s TV show title sequences.

In February 2013, Probst teamed up with Christopher Tebbetts to release the first of Scholastic's adventure series Stranded, aimed at middle school students, grades 4–6.

In November 2013 and January 2014, Probst appeared as himself on the sitcom Two and a Half Men in two season 11 episodes, "Some Kind of Lesbian Zombie"[12] and "Baseball.

[13] In December 2016, Probst appeared as himself on the sitcom Life in Pieces, in the episode "Swim Survivor Zen Talk".

[23] On September 21, 2008, Probst won the first Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program.

The Los Angeles Times attributed Probst's track record in the category to his penchant for interacting with contestants on a compassionate personal level unseen in any of his competitors, transcending his role of host to that of counselor.