Johnny Bananas has carved a career as one of the greatest reality television personalities of all time. The reality star has notched up more than 20 seasons of television including the longest run ever achieved on The Challenge and a recent appearance on Worst Cooks in America on Food Network. Bananas has also competed in several The Challenge spin-offs including Champs vs. Stars and Champs vs. Pros.
With a real instinct for what makes good TV, the MTV legend earned notoriety for a multitude of infamous moments on The Challenge, including when he stole half of his partner Sarah Rice’s winnings much to her surprise on The Challenge: Rivals III. He has won more seasons of The Challenge than any other competitor in the history of the show, and has also earned more prize money, accumulating $1,184,720 as of 2021. Bananas has been able to covert his success into a long-lasting entertainment career, and he became the new host of 1st Look on NBC in 2018.
Born John Devenanzio in Fullerton, California, Bananas got his nickname whilst studying at Penn State University, where his friends though many of his crazy antics were totally “ bananas”, and the nickname has stuck ever since. He made his television debut in 2006 on the seventeenth season of MTV’s The Real World and has barely been off television screens since.
Away from the world of television, Bananas love to travel and regularly posts his adventures on his Instagram account, and he sells his own banana-branded clothing on his website.