Hazen Audel
“After living with these people, eating with them, helping them find and
grow food, getting to know their children and sleeping every night under the
same roof or stars...the bonds you make with these people are
indescribable.”
About Hazen
A Kootenai and Salish Native American by descent, Hazen was born and raised in Spokane, Wash., where
he still lives much of the year when he’s not filming. Hazen holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from
Western Washington University. He has studied Botany and Zoology at Eastern Washington University and
Northwest Indian College, and he has done advanced studies in Tropical Ecology at the University of Hawaii.
He speaks four languages, including English, Spanish, Bahasa, and Quichua.
From a young age, Hazen has loved plants and animals, but it was the biodiversity of the rainforest in South
America that fascinated him the most. At 18, right after graduating high school, Hazen moved to the rainforest
in Ecuador and started a guiding business as a way to support himself while he went to college. He ended up
falling even more in love with the rainforest than he ever could’ve imagined and returned every summer for
ten years. It wasn’t long before he realized that he had a true gift for understanding and explaining the
landscape.
Educating came naturally to him, especially when he was sharing knowledge of a subject he was truly passionate about. After college, Hazen became a high school biology teacher where he used his own experiences to teach his students about biology and science in a manner that was exciting and natural.
Hazen's teaching style has always been to educate through adventure.
Hazen began filming Survive the Tribe for National Geographic in 2014. The show was a hit and Hazen went on to host Primal Survivor, which is currently in it's eighth season. He also hosted Ultimate Survivor WWII in 2019. Through his travels, he has journeyed through some of the most inhospitable places in the world where it is a struggle to stay alive. He has been welcomed into the most reclusive and hostile tribes in the most remote parts of the world.
These experiences shape much of how Hazen lives his life and how he views the world
In his travels, he has battled hunger, dehydration, extreme temperatures, snowstorms, monsoon rains, floods, droughts, quicksand, altitude sickness and nearly drowning. He has been inflicted with festering wounds, skin fungus, parasites, bug bites, snake bites, bee stings, frostbite, and bacterial infections. He has risked walking through murky waters filled with anacondas, piranhas, and huge cayman crocodiles.
Hazen has navigated white water rapids in handmade canoes and bamboo rafts, using only one paddle.
Hazen is a self-proclaimed lifelong learner and nature nerd. When he is not traveling or filming he is working on his own personal homestead in Spokane, Wa. Hazen desires to inspire others to be outside and use their hands. One minute he will be milling his own lumber, planting a garden, or snowboarding in the mountains. He also runs his own Patreon community where he builds relationships around common goals and passions.