Kaysar Ridha

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Kaysar Ridha

Kaysar Ridha (born August 10, 1980) was a contestant on Big Brother 7, a reality TV series in the United States shown on the channel CBS. He was extremely popular as a contestant on Big Brother 6, but came in 10th place. Kaysar was born in Baghdad, Iraq. His family immigrated to the USA when he was an infant. Kaysar is currently residing in Irvine, California, where he is a graphic designer.

Big Brother 6 began with 14 houseguests and 7 pairs of "secret partners". Kaysar's partner was Michael. Michael was evicted in week 2 after an intense argument with the current HOH, Eric. Kaysar and fellow outcast Janelle both had their secret partners evicted in consecutive weeks.

Kaysar became HoH during Week 3 after winning the competition "Majority Rules". He initially nominated Maggie and James. After the nominations, he built a secret alliance consisting of himself, Janelle, Rachel, Howie, James, and Sarah. In the Power of Veto (PoV), competition "Knight Moves", Kaysar's alliance members worked to eliminate Maggie and her veto partner Ivette and then threw the competition to James. Once James used the PoV on himself, Kaysar put up Maggie's secret partner, and leader of the opposing alliance, Eric, to replace James. During voting, Kaysar's alliance all opted to evict Eric, and Eric left the house after a 5-4 vote.

During Week 4, August 4, 2005, Maggie won the HoH competition and nominated James and Kaysar, the two biggest threats from the opposing alliance. After James' partner Sarah won the PoV and removed James from the chopping block, Maggie nominated Kaysar's close friend and alliance member Janelle. By a 7-1 vote, Kaysar was evicted from the house because he was viewed as a strategic threat; only James voted to keep him.

At the close of the program after Kaysar's eviction, host Julie Chen revealed to the houseguests that America would vote to return a previously evicted houseguest to the house: Kaysar's partner and house romantic Michael, fireman Eric, or Kaysar. Ashlea had left the sequester house before Kaysar's eviction and was not an option for voting. Viewers could send their votes by using text messaging or voting on the CBS.com web site. The houseguests were stunned because their new strategies had to consider the unknown factor of who would be returning after the next nominations for eviction. On August 11, Kaysar won the "America's Choice" poll with an overwhelming 82% of the 5 million votes; Eric received 13% and Michael received 5%. When Kaysar was brought back into the house, Howie and Rachel made up the famous catch phrase for Kaysar: "Waddup, Kaysar?"

Immediately after returning, Kaysar competed in the wHoHr competition "Pressure Cooker", where the house guest who held down a button the longest would become the new wHoHr. The competition lasted over fourteen hours until he and Jennifer were left. Jennifer offered through an intense series of negotiations that if Kaysar let her win the competition, she would not put him up for eviction. She also agreed that she would nominate two people from her alliance, use the PoV, and then nominate and evict the truly unpopular James. During nominations, Jennifer went back on her word, nominating Rachel and Janelle for eviction. Rachel won the PoV competition and used it to save herself. Jennifer, breaking the other promise she had made, put Kaysar up for eviction besides Janelle.

Kaysar was evicted by a unanimous vote on August 19, 2005.

[edit] Big Brother 7

Kaysar competed in Big Brother 7: All Stars. Kaysar, as well as 19 other previous Big Brother contestants, went on national promotional tours to garner viewer votes to be given the opportunity to play in the All Star edition. Fourteen contestants won the right to be placed in the house.

On July 13, 2006, Kaysar won the second wHoHr competition. He then nominated competitors Diane and Jennifer "Nakomis" for eviction. The household evicted Nakomis a week later on July 20.

On August 10, 2006, his 26th birthday, Kaysar was evicted from the Big Brother 7 All-Stars house by a vote of 5-1. James used his ability to cancel a vote by voiding Janelle's vote in favor of Kaysar.

[edit] Outside Big Brother

On August 30, 2005, it was announced that Kaysar would appear on the soap opera The Young and the Restless for an episode that aired on October 5, 2005 [1].

Kaysar launched his new clothing start-up, called IrockStar, which is a play on the words Rock Star and Iraq. The line currently sells fan T-shirts, although rumors persist that Kaysar might add other items to the product inventory later on, targeting specific crowds.