J. P. Calderon

John Paul Calderon, born September 5, 1975, is an American professional volleyball player, model, and reality show personality. He is best known for competing on the CBS reality series Survivor: Cook Islands in 2006 and appearing as a regular cast member on The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency starting in 2007. He also achieved recognition as the first man to be featured twice on the cover of Instinct magazine.

Calderon was born in Santa Monica, California, to parents Edwin and Xinia, and grew up in Marina del Rey alongside his older brother, Peter. Raised in a Roman Catholic household, he is of Costa Rican heritage. His mother died of breast cancer when he was nine years old. Although he wanted to model from a young age, initial negative feedback from his father led him to focus on sports instead. Calderon attended St. Bernard’s Catholic High School, Santa Monica City College for two years, and California State University, Long Beach. At Long Beach, he played for the nationally ranked men's volleyball team and graduated in 2000 with a degree in speech communication.

In 1998, Calderon was offered a professional volleyball opportunity in Barcelona, Spain, but declined it to complete his college degree. He subsequently spent five years as an assistant coach for the Long Beach State University women's volleyball team, serving three years as a volunteer and two as a paid coach. During this period, he also worked as a local club coach at Mizuno Long Beach Volleyball Club and coached for the Junior Olympics. Calderon launched his professional volleyball career in 2004, becoming a nationally ranked Association of Volleyball Professionals player.

Calderon's reality television career began after a CBS recruiting coordinator approached him to join the cast of Survivor. In 2006, he competed on Survivor: Cook Islands, the 13th season of the series. He initially competed as one of five members of the Hispanic Aitutaki tribe before joining the Rarotonga tribe when the tribes merged on day eight. He ultimately became the fourth cast member voted off the show in a 7-2 vote split.

In 2007, Calderon formally launched his modeling career by attending an open casting call on the second season of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, eventually signing with the agency. That same year, he was featured on the cover of the February 2007 swimsuit edition of Instinct magazine, where he publicly came out as gay. He returned to the cover of Instinct in 2008, becoming the first male model featured on its cover twice, and appeared as a cover model for the French gay magazine Têtu in 2009. During the season four finale of Dickinson's show, it was announced that Calderon would head the agency's male division in New York City. He was also signed by KULT Model Agency in Germany.

Calderon was cast in 2011 for Logo TV's A-List; Los Angeles. In 2012, he modeled for photographer Adam Bouska's NOH8 Campaign to oppose California Proposition 8. In his personal life, Calderon became engaged to real estate agent Julz Heaney in Hawaii in October 2013, following a relationship that began in 2007.