For many viewers, Heather Amaro seemed to appear out of nowhere.
One season, Expedition X had Jessica Chobot alongside Phil Torres and Josh Gates. Then, when the show returned for Season 8 in 2024, a new investigator was suddenly standing beside Torres.
Her name was Heather Amaro.
She was not a household name. She did not arrive with the celebrity profile of a major television personality. Instead, Discovery introduced her primarily through her background as a paranormal researcher with decades of experience.
And within a relatively short time, she became one of the most recognizable faces of Expedition X.
Her rise is one of the more interesting changes in the show's history.
Who Is Heather Amaro?
Heather Amaro is a paranormal investigator and television personality who describes herself as a third generation paranormal researcher.
According to profiles of her career, Amaro has spent more than two decades involved in paranormal investigations and has worked alongside her mother.
That background made her an unusual choice for a major Discovery series.
She was not simply being brought in as a celebrity guest.
Her experience was directly connected to the type of investigations that Expedition X conducts.
Discovery officially introduced Amaro as a new member of the team when Season 8 premiered in August 2024. The network described her as a third generation paranormal researcher who had spent decades investigating mysterious phenomena.
That was the beginning of a completely new era for the show.
Why Did Heather Replace Jessica Chobot?
This is where the story becomes more complicated.
Jessica Chobot had been part of Expedition X from its premiere in 2020 through Season 7.
Beginning with Season 8, Heather Amaro took her place.
The change was not presented by Discovery as a dramatic controversy. The network simply announced Amaro as the new member of the investigation team when promoting the 2024 season.
There has been speculation online about exactly why Chobot left.
However, there is no reliable official evidence establishing a dramatic reason for the change.
That is worth emphasizing because social media discussions can easily turn an ordinary television cast change into a much bigger story.
What we can confirm is simple.
Chobot's run ended after seven seasons.
Amaro joined the main cast beginning with Season 8.
And the show continued.
Discovery Gave Amaro a Very Different Role
Amaro was not introduced as another version of Jessica Chobot.
Her background gave the series a different dynamic.
Chobot had become strongly associated with paranormal investigation and the show's original identity.
Amaro arrived with a more explicitly family rooted background in paranormal research.
That distinction gave viewers a new personality to follow in the field.
She also had to establish credibility alongside Phil Torres, whose background is in biology and science.
That combination became one of the show's defining characteristics.
A paranormal investigator on one side.
A scientist on the other.
And Josh Gates coordinating the larger investigation.
Her First Season Was a Major Test
Amaro's first season did not ease her into the job.
Season 8 opened with a two part investigation at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia.
Discovery described the location as one of America's most haunted buildings and sent Gates, Torres and Amaro into the enormous former psychiatric hospital to investigate reports of paranormal activity.
That was a significant introduction.
Instead of spending her first episodes simply getting acquainted with the audience, Amaro immediately found herself investigating one of the most famous locations in American paranormal television.
The season then took her and Torres to Scotland, Georgia, Florida and other locations.
They investigated reports involving Loch Ness, haunted Savannah, the Florida Skunk Ape and other unexplained phenomena.
It was a serious baptism into the Expedition X world.
Savannah Put Her in the Spotlight
The Savannah investigation became one of the most memorable stories from Amaro's first season.
Savannah has long had a reputation for ghost stories and haunted locations.
During the investigation, Amaro and Torres spent time examining reports of paranormal activity and interacting with people who claimed to have experienced unexplained events.
The location was significant for another reason.
A 2024 casting call associated with the production had sought people in Savannah who had experienced unexplained or paranormal events.
That demonstrates how the show can build an investigation around local eyewitness accounts rather than simply choosing famous haunted buildings.
She Quickly Became Part of the Formula
By the following seasons, Amaro was no longer "the new investigator."
She had become part of the regular Expedition X identity.
Season 9 sent her and Torres across several countries.
They investigated the Château de Veauce in France, the Fouke Monster in Arkansas, alleged Nazi occult history in Central Europe, the Beast of Gévaudan, Mayan ruins in Belize and Bigfoot reports in Kentucky.
That is an enormous range of investigations.
And it demonstrated that Amaro could operate in very different environments.
Haunted buildings.
Forests.
Ancient ruins.
Cryptid investigations.
Historical mysteries.
She was becoming associated with the show's entire investigative format rather than one particular type of paranormal case.
Then Josh Gates Joined Her in the Field
Another interesting change occurred during Season 10.
Phil Torres took paternity leave, and Josh Gates joined Amaro for the investigation of Ireland's Spike Island.
Discovery's official announcement described Gates and Amaro investigating the former prison, where reports of paranormal activity had been associated with the island's violent history.
This was important for Amaro because she was no longer simply working alongside the show's scientist.
She was now leading a major investigation with Gates himself.
The two part investigation gave viewers a different dynamic.
Gates brought his long established expedition style.
Amaro brought her paranormal investigation background.
Together they explored the prison, its cells and its underground tunnels.
Season 11 Proved She Was Not a Temporary Replacement
If there was any question about whether Amaro was simply filling a temporary position, Season 11 largely answered it.
The season premiered in January 2026, with Amaro continuing as a central member of the field team.
She investigated Vulture City in Arizona with guest investigator Jack Osbourne.
She then returned to the field with Phil Torres for investigations including the mysterious "Klickitat ape cat" in Washington and stories surrounding the ghost of Blackbeard in North Carolina.
By this point, Amaro had moved well beyond being introduced as "the new face."
She was established as part of the show's core team.
Her Partnership With Phil Torres Became Important
One of the most interesting aspects of Amaro's rise has been her partnership with Phil Torres.
Torres approaches unusual claims from a scientific and biological perspective.
Amaro approaches them from the perspective of paranormal investigation.
That creates a built in debate.
When something strange happens, Torres can ask whether there is a biological or environmental explanation.
Amaro can consider whether the event fits a larger pattern of paranormal reports.
The contrast gives the audience two different ways of interpreting the same evidence.
And Josh Gates sits between those perspectives.
Why Viewers Responded to Her
Amaro's appeal is not simply that she investigates haunted locations.
It is her personality.
She appears comfortable in situations designed to make people uncomfortable.
Dark buildings.
Remote forests.
Unexplained sounds.
Reports of strange creatures.
Potentially dangerous locations.
Her willingness to continue investigating after something unsettling happens has become part of her identity on the show.
That is particularly important for a television format where much of the drama comes from how investigators react to uncertainty.
She Had a Career Before Expedition X
One reason the headline "Heather Amaro wasn't famous" is somewhat misleading is that she was not an unknown person in paranormal circles.
She had already spent years investigating paranormal phenomena before joining Discovery.
Her public television profile simply expanded dramatically once she became part of Expedition X.
That distinction matters.
She did not become an experienced investigator because of television.
Television gave a much larger audience access to the experience she had already developed.
Her Instagram Audience Has Also Grown
Amaro's public social media presence has expanded alongside her television career.
Her Instagram account currently has more than 50,000 followers and describes her interests around adventures, mysteries and life between expeditions.
That is still tiny compared with mainstream entertainment celebrities.
But compared with the audience she had before becoming a regular Discovery personality, it represents a significant expansion of her public profile.
Is She Really the "Face" of Expedition X?
There is one important qualification.
Josh Gates remains the central figure and host of Expedition X.
He is the person who presents the investigations and connects the series to the larger Expedition Unknown franchise.
Phil Torres also remains an important member of the field team.
So calling Amaro the sole face of Expedition X would be inaccurate.
A better description is that she has become one of the defining faces of the show's current era.
That is supported by her continued presence from Season 8 through Season 11 and her prominent role in the show's investigations.
The Bigger Transformation of Expedition X
Amaro's arrival also represents a larger change in the series.
The original Expedition X launched in 2020 with Josh Gates, Jessica Chobot and Phil Torres.
The show originally built much of its identity around that trio.
After seven seasons, the lineup changed.
Rather than simply replacing one person with another, the series effectively entered a new phase.
Amaro brought a different history.
Torres remained the scientific counterbalance.
Gates continued as the central host and expedition leader.
And the show continued exploring everything from ghosts and UFO reports to cryptids and strange historical mysteries.
What Happens Next for Heather Amaro?
As of August 2026, Amaro remains associated with Expedition X and continues to appear in the show's current run.
Available listings now show the program continuing into a 12th season, while Season 11 established Amaro as a long term member of the cast rather than a one season replacement.
That is probably the most important part of her story.
The question is no longer:
"Who is the new investigator?"
It has become:
"Where will Heather Amaro investigate next?"
Final Thoughts
Heather Amaro did not become part of Expedition X because she was already a mainstream celebrity.
She arrived with something much more relevant to the program.
Experience.
Curiosity.
A background in paranormal investigation.
And a willingness to enter places where most people would rather not spend the night.
Discovery introduced her in 2024 as a new investigator after Jessica Chobot's seven season run, and within two years she had become an established part of the show's identity.
Her story is therefore less about an unknown person suddenly becoming famous.
It is about a specialist finally getting a much bigger platform.
And that may be why her rise has been so interesting to Expedition X fans.
She did not simply replace Jessica Chobot.
She helped create a new era of the show.
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