LOS ANGELES — Chima Simone couldn’t think of a better place to spend the recession than the “Big Brother” house.

“I thought it’d be fun,” said the 32-year-old freelance journalist, one of 13 contestants who will be locked away for the 11th season. “I wasn’t getting any responses to my query letters. I’m not traveling anywhere this summer. I thought ‘Big Brother’ would be a great way to make a ton of money in a limited time without really having to work for it.”

Simone will be among the houseguests (of whom the 13th is still a mystery) competing for the voyeuristic CBS reality show’s $500,000 grand prize, awarded to the contestant who outlasts the rest while being monitored by dozens of cameras inside a makeshift two-story house on a soundstage.

This summer’s contestants also include a surfer, bikini model, “World of Warcraft” gamer, a neuroscientist, tae kwon do champion and fifth-grade teacher. Before meeting their competitors or entering the house, the cast members were individually interviewed by The Associated Press while they were voluntarily sequestered — no television, newspapers or telephones — from the outside world.

Casey “DJ Mingle Mixxx” Turner, the oldest contestant at 41, is a self-proclaimed “hip-hop redneck” from St. Petersburg, Fla. The fifth-grade teacher who moonlights as a disc jockey left behind his wife and two children — including a 9-month-old son — to participate in the show. During production, the contestants will be isolated from their loved ones.

“I’m going to miss my family,” said Turner. “It’s been really hard for me just the couple of days I’ve been secluded here in the hotel, so I can imagine how I’m going to feel a month from now. I look forward to meeting some cool people. All of them will not be cool. I’m aware of that. All of them will not like my style. I’m aware of that, too.”

Michelle Noonan, a married 27-year-old neuroscientist from Pasadena, Calif., auditioned for the show after her husband forwarded her a Craigslist.org posting looking for people with interesting jobs. Noonan, who works as a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, is enthusiastic about representing the scientific community on “Big Brother.”

“You don’t see too many scientists on reality TV,” she said. “I want to be a fun example of a real-life scientist that’s not a stereotype. I’m not the typical nerd you would see on a show like ‘Beauty and the Geek.’ There are actually many female scientists, but you never see them on TV. Hopefully, I can be an inspiration to girls interested in science.”

Video store manager Natalie Martinez, who has been a “Big Brother” fan since the show’s beginning, is only interested in one thing: winning. The 24-year-old recent Arizona State University graduate from Gilbert, Ariz., said she doesn’t plan on telling her competitors that she won a bronze medal for tae kwon do at the Junior Olympic Championships in 2002.

“I would be shooting myself in the foot to let people know I’m a competitive, athletic person,” she said.”