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| Joe Vanella: What Happened to The Traitors: New Blood Contestant? |
NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood has already given viewers a contestant with a rather fitting professional background for a show built around secrets, suspicion and people trying very hard not to look suspicious. Joe Vanella entered the Scottish Highlands castle as one of 22 civilian contestants and was chosen as a Traitor during the first Round Table, giving the fourth-generation funeral director from New York exactly the sort of role he had hoped for.
Joe arrived determined to make connections before making enemies. Having travelled that far from New York for the first time, he quickly opened up about his Italian heritage and his excitement about whatever strange twists the competition had planned.
His strategy was straightforward enough: be honest when honesty helped, be friendly with everyone and save the more complicated part of the personality for when it actually became useful. In other words, become the bloke nobody wants to accuse because, well, he seems far too nice.
That approach appeared to work almost immediately. During the first Round Table, the host selected Joe as the first Traitor, followed by Tomica Adams. Rather amusingly, Joe had been saying that contestants should watch anyone whose behaviour suddenly changed, essentially giving everyone advice on how to spot a Traitor while quietly becoming one himself. The irony was not exactly subtle, but it was useful.
Joe later met Tomica after they had both taken their oath, and the pair quickly found that their personalities and energy worked well together. They subsequently chose Xavier Scruggs and Katie Fites as their accomplices, allowing Joe to settle into his new position and enjoy the influence that came with it. For someone who had entered the castle hoping to become a Traitor, this was rather close to getting exactly what he ordered.
Away from The Traitors: New Blood, Joe’s career has little to do with reality television and considerably more to do with a family tradition stretching back generations. He is a fourth-generation funeral director in Wantagh, New York, continuing a profession that began with his great-grandfather, who moved from Italy to New York during Prohibition and established a funeral home in Manhattan.
The family business continued from one generation to the next, with Joe’s father eventually owning funeral homes in Oceanside and Manhattan. Joe followed the same path, making his career something considerably deeper than simply a job. There is a long family history behind it, and he has also spent time talking publicly about the misconceptions people sometimes have about his profession.
Reality television has nevertheless opened up a very different side of Joe’s public life. Since appearing on the show, he has become more active on Instagram, where he posts about his experience, his thoughts on the series and snippets from his life outside the castle. His social media presence gives viewers a chance to see the person behind the suspiciously calm Traitor, which is probably useful considering the entire premise is based on figuring out whether anyone can actually be trusted.
Joe also discussed his unexpected television journey in an interview featured by Newsday in September 2026. He explained that his sister-in-law was initially the person who pushed him to apply, while he admitted that being selected came as a surprise. That makes his casting story particularly entertaining: apparently, sometimes all it takes to end up in a Scottish castle plotting against strangers is having a relative who refuses to let the idea go.
September was also a busy month for Joe outside filming. He promoted an exclusive viewing party at Mulcahy’s on September 17, giving supporters the opportunity to watch the season premiere alongside him.
He has also built a reputation among friends as a keen fantasy football participant, proving that even after spending your days dealing with family business and your evenings pretending not to be suspicious on television, there is apparently still time to argue about fantasy line-ups.
Joe’s personal life is considerably more grounded than his new television persona might suggest. He is married to Meghan Vanella, and much of his time away from work and filming is centred around his wife, their three children and close friends. Joe and Meghan enjoy spending time together, whether that means going out for restaurant dates, attending concerts or tending to their home garden, where they grow herbs and vegetables including basil and cherry tomatoes.
The couple are parents to two daughters and a son, and Joe regularly shares moments that show how closely involved he is in their lives. One particularly sweet example is his relationship with his eldest daughter, with the pair often sitting down together to draw. Rather than simply being another activity to fill an afternoon, it gives Joe a chance to encourage her creativity and spend uninterrupted time together.
Joe has spoken about growing up in West Hempstead before later moving to Rockville Centre. In 2022, he and his family eventually settled in Wantagh, where he continues to balance his career, family life and growing profile following his television debut.
His interests outside work are fairly easy to understand too: he is a sports enthusiast who enjoys visiting stadiums, supporting his favourite teams and soaking up the atmosphere rather than merely watching from the sofa.
When he is not working, travelling to sporting events or appearing on television, Joe also enjoys meeting friends at the weekend or simply relaxing in a hammock. That sounds considerably more peaceful than spending an evening wondering which person in the room is quietly planning your downfall.
There is also something genuinely amusing about Joe Vanella’s career and reality-TV role existing in such completely different worlds. He spends his professional life in a family trade that has been passed down for four generations, then walks into a castle where his entire job is essentially to convince people that he is absolutely not hiding anything. The contrast gives him a particularly unusual reality-TV profile, especially because he appears to have entered the competition with a clear understanding that relationships would matter just as much as strategy.
My take is that Joe’s biggest advantage may not simply be his ability to deceive people. It is the fact that his personality seems naturally suited to building relationships without making every interaction feel like an obvious move on a chessboard.
That matters in a format where contestants can become suspicious of someone for something as ridiculous as sitting in the wrong chair at breakfast. His family background also gives him a story that feels distinct from the usual reality-TV contestant biography, while his enthusiasm for his wife, children, friends and hobbies makes his off-screen life considerably more interesting than simply “man goes on television and lies to everyone”.
At the same time, being openly enthusiastic about becoming a Traitor could become a problem if the others start connecting the dots. Joe can tell everyone to look for behavioural changes all he likes, but eventually someone might decide to apply that advice to him.
That would be the slightly awkward bit. For now, though, Joe Vanella has managed to combine a fourth-generation career, family life and an unexpectedly dramatic television adventure, which is quite the CV addition. Do you think Joe has the personality to keep everyone convinced, or will the castle residents eventually work out what he is hiding? Share your thoughts on The Traitors: New Blood and Joe’s strategy.