Who Is 'Expedition X's' Heather Amaro? Meet the New Member of the Crew

It's always difficult being the new person, especially when you're the new person on a TV series with a thriving and emotionally involved fandom. Expedition X is one of those series. For the first seven seasons, the team consisted of Josh Gates, Jessica Chobot, and Phil Torres, who acted as the team scientist, as they traveled and explored locations with purported paranormal activity. In the first season, Jessica and Phil were the primary explorers, with Josh as the host. That has since changed.

As the series progressed, Josh became more involved, stepping into the role of team lead. When news about Season 8 slowly began rolling out, fans began to notice that Jessica seemed to be missing from the trailer and other promo materials. It was later confirmed that Jessica was no longer on the show. So, while Jessica will not be featured in Season 8 of Expedition X, Discovery did bring a new face into the team: Heather Amaro, a paranormal investigator. Here's what we know about her so far.

Heather Amaro is, according to her bio, a third-generation paranormal investigator, and has done many investigations with her mother. She introduced herself in an Instagram post shared by the @expeditionunknown account. In it, she reveals some fun facts about herself. She says that she was born on the day of the summer solstice, which has some paranormal significance. She also says that she has a rescue dog and that she loves going on adventures, making her a good fit for the team.

Social media detectives are ever-vigilant, and after noticing the absence of Jessica from the promos for Season 8, they headed to Instagram. There, they noticed that Jessica was no longer following Josh while still following Phil and also following Heather. There had been whispers in the past about "creative differences" between Josh and Jessica on the show. While no one is sure of what exactly happened between them, it does seem as if there was some sort of rift between them, but the show must go on.

After confirming that she would no longer be a member of the Expedition X team, Jessica shared some hopeful news for the fans who were sad about her departure. She did not reveal much but did say, "I’m working on something new with Discovery… Here’s a hint. It’s the weird s--t that I love mixed with other weird s--t that I love! The perfect combo." She also wished Phil and Heather well in the new season. Josh's name was not mentioned at all, which also is a big hint that they had a falling-out.