Ami Cusack
Ami Cusack (born
January 25,
1973) is the former fiancée of
Body for Life author
Bill Phillips, as well as the former Charitable Director of
Experimental and Applied Sciences (EAS). Recently Cusack was a contestant on
Survivor: Vanuatu. Cusack is a model/
barista who posed for
Playboy magazine in 1996.
[1]Cusack was born on January 25, 1973 and raised in
Golden, Colorado. She is the oldest daughter of Richard, a top gun pilot and explosive engineer and Virginia, a former substitute English teacher. She attended Golden High School as well as the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD) in
Denver.
In 1996, Cusack lost her 18-year old brother to a drunk driver, her mother now conducts seminars in high schools about the consequences of drinking and driving. Cusack, along with fellow constestant Dr. Scout Cloud Lee, were the first two openly
lesbian Survivor contestants.
Cusack worked as the Charitable Director for EAS until 1998, when then fiancé Bill Phillips sold the company. Ami can be seen in the promotional video entitled
Body of Work which depicts the inspirational origins of the first ever
Body for Life Challenge in
1997.
Cusack was the unofficial leader of the female alliance that voted off contestants Travis "Bubba" Sampson, Rory Freeman, Lea Masters and Chad Crittenden. She truly showed how powerful she was in the Yasur tribe when she managed to get
Lisa Keiffer voted out. Lisa had made a simple, off-handed comment that caused Cusack to believe that Lisa wasn't trustworthy. When
Chris Daugherty was the last male remaining in the game,
Leann Slaby proposed removing
Eliza Orlins instead of Chris. Ami herself was not happy with the idea, but, thinking some good could come of letting another faction direct the vote, she agreed to the idea in the presence of all the women. When
Twila Tanner secretly headed back to inform Chris of the situation, the die was cast. Since Cusack had immunity, the cross-tribal alliance was forced to target another member (in this case, they chose Leann). However, they did manage to end the reign of the ruling alliance with that vote. They promptly got rid of Cusack the next round.
At the final six tribal council, Cusack was the thirteenth contestant voted off of
Survivor: Vanuatu. Ami was the fourth member of the jury. Despite the fact that Twila betrayed her, she still voted for Twila to win the $1 Million and the title of Sole Survivor. Cusack respected Twila's ability to give honest answers at the final tribal council. However, some members of the original Lopevi believed Ami based the majority of her decisions
simply on gender.
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Ami Cusack: CBS.com Survivor Bio Page
