Cody Calafiore is one of the few people to make Big Brother’s finale twice, six years apart, and walk away with the win the second time. His stint on Season 1 of The Traitors flipped that formula: cast as an original hidden Traitor, he was banished first among the show’s secret players, an emotional exit that came after he’d murdered a real friend in-game and gotten caught in a lie. In February 2026, Calafiore and his wife welcomed their first child, a son named Christian, closing out a run of personal milestones that started with a Big Brother win and a very public wedding.
Before any of that, Calafiore was a Temple University soccer player who ended up in the reality-TV pipeline almost by accident.
From Temple Soccer to the Bomb Squad
Calafiore graduated from Temple University’s Fox School of Business with a degree in business administration and played midfielder for the Temple Owls, even drawing interest from a professional soccer team before an injury ended that path. Before Big Brother, he spent two years working as an event host at Total Entertainment in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Calafiore joined Big Brother 16 in 2014 as a founding member of the Bomb Squad, an eight-person alliance formed on the season’s very first night that ended up dominating the game for weeks. He later helped form a smaller offshoot alliance called The Detonators as the numbers thinned, playing one of the sharpest social games of the season before finishing as runner-up.
Winning Big Brother All-Stars
Calafiore returned six years later for Big Brother 22, an All-Stars season, and this time he won outright, defeating Enzo Palumbo in the season’s shortened, pandemic-era format and taking home the $500,000 grand prize. The win made him one of a small handful of players to finish as both runner-up and eventual champion across separate Big Brother seasons.
Murdering a Friend on The Traitors
On The Traitors, Calafiore was cast as an original Traitor, one of the game’s secret roles working to eliminate Faithful players without getting caught. In one of the season’s more uncomfortable turns, he was assigned to murder Ryan Lochte, a genuine friend of his outside the game. His downfall came shortly after, when a lie he told Kyle Cooke didn’t hold up under scrutiny, and Cooke’s read on the situation helped expose him. Calafiore was banished as the first Traitor to fall, and he was visibly emotional in admitting afterward that he had actually wanted to be cast as a Traitor going in.
Marriage, a New Baby, and Life Now
Calafiore met Cristie Laratta at a bar on July 4, 2015, and the two built a relationship largely outside the reality-TV spotlight before he got engaged to her in 2022. They married on February 16, 2024, at Shadowbrook at Shrewsbury, an 18-acre estate in their home state of New Jersey, surrounded by roughly 200 guests including Big Brother alumni Derrick Levasseur, Enzo Palumbo, and Tiffany Mitchell, along with Cody’s brother, Paulie Calafiore. The couple announced they were expecting their first child on September 5, 2025, writing “New chapter starting 2026,” and welcomed their son, Christian, in early February 2026, sharing the news with a caption that read “words can’t even begin to describe the joy and love we have for our little boy.”
Between a Big Brother résumé that includes a runner-up finish and an outright win, a Traitors run that ended almost as fast as it started, and now a young family, Calafiore has settled into a steadier chapter than either of his two biggest TV moments, a championship and a banishment, would suggest was coming.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Cody Calafiore win Big Brother?
Yes, on his second try. He was runner-up on Big Brother 16 in 2014, then won Big Brother 22, an All-Stars season, in 2020, defeating Enzo Palumbo for the $500,000 prize.
Did Cody Calafiore win The Traitors?
No. He was cast as an original Traitor in Season 1 and was the first Traitor banished, after a lie he told Kyle Cooke fell apart under scrutiny.
Does Cody Calafiore have children?
Yes. He and wife Cristie Laratta welcomed their first child, a son named Christian, in early February 2026, after announcing the pregnancy in September 2025.
