‘Claim to Fame’: How Danny Kept Everyone Guessing About Superstar Relative

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers about Claim to Fame Season 3 Episode 6, “Everything’s Going Smoothie.”]

And then there were four. On Wednesday night’s (August 14) Claim to Fame, one of the most elusive contestants found himself in the guess-off, and, unfortunately, he was fooled by his co-star and had his own celebrity relative identified.

Danny, whose real name is Nael Zayas, was voted into the guess-off after a bit of politicking by Shane, who was also in the bottom two and was duped into thinking that Mackenzie’s celebrity relative was Blake Shelton.

To be fair to Danny, it wasn’t a bad guess; he was privy to Shane’s intel indicating her celebrity relative was a six-foot-plus-tall country singer, and there are only so many of those. But he still didn’t get the right one, and as a result, his celebrity relative — his uncle, Marc Anthony — was revealed. TV Insider caught up with Nael Zayas aka Danny to find out how he managed to hide his identity for so long (and why he felt so confident about his guess)!

(Be sure to check out our prior exit interviews with Bianca, Gracie Lou & Jill, Raphael aka Miguel, and Naomi.)

What made you want to join this show to begin with in the first place?

Nael Zayas aka Danny: Well, it was actually my wife. She’s an avid watcher of the show. I started watching during Season 2, so I had to catch up. But at the end of Season 2, it was like a no-brainer. They were asking for people to join up. So I was like, “You know what? Why not? Let’s just go for it. What else are we doing? Might as well shoot the shot in back.” I can’t believe it. We actually got picked. It was like, “Well, that’s awesome!”

What was the thinking that for the two truths and a lie element you went for wrestler and a Grammy? 

I was looking for something that was like, totally out of the box. You know what? I mean, I even grew my little mullet and everything to try and throw people off, changing my voice a little bit, too… But yeah, I thought that if I threw that wrench that nobody really knew about wrestling as much as they should in a competition like this. 

What were some of the guesses that you heard about your celebrity relative, and what did you think about those?

I love all the guesses. You know what? I mean. It’s awesome to see that people are working and sleuthing it out. I liked The Miz, Chris Jericho… Jelly Roll was a good one. Steve Buscemi. It was so many outlandish ones that you have to laugh at them. Never take it personal.

Were you surprised when the sleuths were able to find it before your reveal aired?

I’m surprised they didn’t find it sooner. You know how the internet is like, how they were just knocking everybody down, like, “Oh man, I can’t even believe this… They’re gonna figure me out.” Do you know what I mean? Everything happens. But I feel like I had to go to run though, even though they figured it out somehow.

Coming to the vote, were you saying that the vote was unanimous?

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I wasn’t surprised. I went in [and] thought I had a good shot. And I told everybody, if it comes down to it, I played a good game. I felt I was ready to pull it, and I ultimately thought I was kind of right, because over the height [of the clue], I was like an inch off. I thought I was pretty good. So I don’t want to say I saw it coming, but it was going to happen.

Did you know that Shane was secretly working behind your back to get people to vote for you to go into the guess-off?

At that point, I knew that everybody was gunning for me. Because so far along, nobody knew, wrestlers still, and for people to still actually think that — until they started grabbing my clues — it’s why everything happened. But I don’t blame anyone. It was a good game. It was a good game plan. And I feel like everything went according to play on what we were trying to do. Because if it would have worked out, would have been totally different game.  

You said nobody knew who your relative was. Was that what you were trying to do just trying to do — just fly under the radar until the end?

Absolutely. I was definitely trying to stay under the radar. I didn’t even want people to know my nationality. So I was definitely trying to be under the radar as much as possible. But it’s hard, man, when everybody’s working together against you. You know, it’s tough. 

Who surprised you the most when their celebrity relative was revealed?

Oh, the most revealing, I have to say, was still Miguel, man. That was probably the most shocking. Like, I didn’t see that coming at all. I thought he still could still be related to Antonio Banderas.

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You guys were doing the opposite thing!

[Laughs.] Yeah.

So what was your uncle’s reaction to you joining the show? And did he have any words of wisdom about being in the spotlight?

Well, he always gave me words of encouragement, like, “Play your game. Be your truthful self, and be honest to yourself, and everything will come together.” And I tried to bring that into gameplay. Like I said, I wore my heart on my sleeve, and I think I play honestly. And I didn’t try to manipulate people or anything like that. So I hope that shows through my gameplay. Other than that, man, I just hope I made him proud… Top five can’t be bad.

Going into the guess-off, how confident were you that you had it right about Mackenzie?

I thought I was super confident. Not knowing anything about any sort of country artist or anything related to country music besides Blake [Shelton], because he’s the most like household name that I know. And him being 6’5″ — I was like, “Is he 6’5″ or 6’6″?! I know he’s tall.” But I still think it was a good shot. I think I played a good game and yeah, I think it shows.

On the Clue Wall, did you see anything that stood out as your clues?

I mean, besides that, the J hanging low one — that was probably the most obvious one. I was trying to shoot away from that as much as possible. But other than that, maybe the maracas. There was a lot of Latin cultural figures that I saw there that could also be traced back to our roots and things like that. So that’s another reason why I tried to keep my Latin heritage under wraps.

Who are you rooting for from the final four? 

I mean, even though my boy was in cahoots against me, you know, we still slept together every night. [Laughs] I’m still rooting for Shane, and hopefully, he pulls it through, man, hopefully, you can come through and bring the chip home.  

You were part of the final five, which means we’re really close to the finale now. I know that contestants usually come back for the finale. Can you give me teasers about what we can expect?

I mean, you’re gonna have to watch and find out! I can’t give too much away. It’s very splashy. It gets very splashy.

Claim to Fame, Wednesdays, 9/8c, ABC