Ami Cusack is a contestant from Survivor: Vanuatu and Survivor: Micronesia.
In Vanuatu, Ami eventually driven and lead the all-female Yasur Alliance, successfully eliminating all male castaways, sans Chris Daugherty post merge.
In Micronesia, Ami returned as a favorite, but found herself in the minority quickly. She got lucky when the tribes were mixed up, because she was absorbed by the majority to vote out the fans. However her luck eventually ran out as she was disposed of before the merge.
Profile
Ami Cusack was born and raised in Golden, Colorado, to Richard, a top gun pilot and explosives engineer, and Virginia, a former substitute English teacher and homemaker. After graduating Golden High School, she attended Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Denver. In 1992, while attending RMCAD, Cusack became one of the original six employees of a Golden-based nutritional company called Experiment and Applied Sciences. She started out by answering phones and by 1996 she became the company's charitable director. In 1998, (with over 350 employees), the company was sold and Cusack decided to travel for the next four years. Her travels led her to Australia, Thailand, Tahiti, Iceland, Japan and Africa.
Upon returning to the U.S., she took a job at a coffee shop, which she now considers "the greatest job in the world." She looks forward to being a mom and taking care of her family. She also is a nanny for a six-year-old. She is still very active in charities and has been named an Ambassador for the Colorado Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
In 1996, she lost her 18-year-old younger brother, Kyle, to a drunk driver. Her mother now conducts motivational speaking to high school students about the consequences of drinking and driving.
Cusack is currently single. Her birth date is January 25, 1973.
Survivor: Vanuatu
During the welcoming ceremony, Ami Cusack was annoyed that she was put second before a man. The tribal chief divided the tribes by gender and Ami was placed on the Yasur tribe. The women won the first challenge because of Chris Daugherty's inability to stay on the balance beam. The women also won the reward challenge and comfort items, once again due to the men's inability to cross a balance beam. However at camp, the women was divided between youth and work ethic. Ami preferred the hard workers and bonded well with Leann Slaby. They failed to work together in the immunity challenge and lost badly. After the challenge, a paranoid Eliza Orlins came to Ami with a proposition to vote out swing vote Dolly Neely. The plan worked and Dolly was blindsided. At the next challenge, it was revealed to be a double tribal council. Yasur lost the reward part of the challenge. As a stipulation of winning the individual immunity, John Kenney spent time at the Yasur camp to decide on who gets the individual immunity for Yasur. Hoping not to distrupt the intended elimination, John decided to give it to Ami. Ami's alliance proceded to vote off the tempermental Mia Galeotalanza. The Yasur tribe won the next two challenges, winning a native wilderness guide to show them the resources of their camp and immunity.
On Day 11, native Vanuatu tribesman came to the Yasur, wanting the women to pick a tribe leader. The women agreed the oldest member, Scout Cloud Lee. A tribe switch occured with Scout and Lea "Sarge" Masters in charge of mixing tribes. Scout picked the tribes that Ami would stay with Eliza, and Leann and introduced to Travis "Bubba" Sampson and Rory Freeman. Sarge picked the other group as the Lopevi tribe. The new Yasur also gotten Lisa Keiffer when she chose Yasur over Lopevi. Yasur lost the first challenge of the new tribes. At the immunity challenge, Ami hear Bubba asking Chris to throw the challenge. Angered by this, Ami successfully campaigned for Bubba's elimination. Yasur lost the next two challenges. Although Rory was the initial target, Ami deemed Lisa untrustworthy and arranged for elimination as well. Yasur won the next challenge, winning a coffee shop and loved-one letters and pictures. Although she bonded with everyone, Ami was dead set on voting out Rory, much to the latter's anger. This would be Averted as Rory won the women immunity. Despite that, Ami still Targeted Rory.
After losing cookies and milk in a reward challenge, the tribes merged at the next immunity challenge. Ami agreed with Twila Tanner's recommendation of staying at the Lopevi Camp. In the first individual immunity challenge, Ami made to it the final round but lost to Sarge. At camp, Ami was targeted by the lopevi men because Rory informed them of what was going down at Yasur. Ami was safe because Twila and Julie Berry deemed it was their best interest to go with the women over the men. Ami's alliance eliminated Sarge and Chad quickly. Ami wanted Chris to go next as he failed to win immunity (which she won). Her closest ally, Leann, didn't feel right about sending Chris to the jury as they sent Lisa home. Ami was willing to accommodate for Leann and vote out Eliza. Unfortunately, Chris used this opportunity to form a counter alliance with Eliza, Twila and Scout and blindside Leann. In the minority, Ami tried to get Eliza to turn against the duo of Twila and Scout. Ami failed in both winning immunity and swaying Eliza to her side Ami was voted out in a 4-2 vote and became the fourth member of the jury.
At Final Tribal Council, Ami pointed out the irony that Twila due any thing for a million dollars but refused to apologized to Eliza. Ami then asked Chris what genuine qualities he had to beat her. Chris said had none and the two people with the least amount of those qualities was the finalists. Ami gave her vote to Twila for giving answers from the heart.
Voting History
| Ami's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Ami's Votes |
Voted Against Ami |
| 1 | Yasur Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Dolly | - |
| 3 | Mia | Individual Immunity |
| 4 | Yasur Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Travis | - |
| 6 | Lisa | - |
| 7 | Yasur Tribe Immune | |
| 8 | Rory | Chad, Chris, Lea, Rory |
| 9 | Lea | Individual Immunity |
| 10 | Chad | - |
| 11 | Eliza | Individual Immunity |
| 12 | Scout | Chris, Eliza, Scout, Twila |
| Voted Out, Day 33 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Twila | |
Survivor: Micronesia
Ami returned to Survivor: Micronesia as a Favorite on the purple tribe Malakal, which enjoyed early success in camp life. In the next few days, Ami had formed an alliance with fellow Vanuatu returnee Eliza Orlins, Jonathan Penner, and Yau-Man Chan to usurp the budding Malakal Couples Alliance consisting of Amanda Kimmel, James Clement, Ozzy Lusth, and Parvati Shallow. Malakal lost the Day 3 Immunity Challenge, sending them to Tribal Council. Jon Dalton, aka Jonny Fairplay, asked to be voted out to be with his expectant girlfriend, and his request was honored by the entire tribe, sending Fairplay home in a unanimous 9-1 vote. After this, the remaining swing vote was Cirie Fields. Penner and the rest of the alliance including Ami believed that Cirie was on their side, but Cirie felt she could trust the Couples Alliance better due to Penner's past as a liar, and joined their ship. Any strategizing was put on hold due to Malakal winning the Day 6 Immunity Challenge. After Malakal won the Day 7 Reward Challenge, Ami volunteered to go to Exile Island, along with fan Kathy Sleckman. Ami immediately wanted to search for the Hidden Immunity Idol, but Kathy convinced Ami that there was a storm coming and they shouldn't be out searching for the idol. Ami reluctantly agreed. Ami returned for the Day 8 Immunity Challenge, but unfortunately, Malakal lost, putting Ami, Eliza, Penner, and Yau-Man on the chopping block. Though the Couples Alliance (except Cirie) was leaning towards voting out perceived weak link Eliza, Cirie convinced the Couples Alliance to vote out strategic threat Yau-Man. At Tribal Council, Yau-Man was voted off, but Ami threw a vote at Cirie for her "betrayal". Though the alliance was upset at the prospect of losing Yau-Man, Malakal was able to win the Day 11 Immunity Challenge. On Day 12, a Tribe Switch occured, saving Ami from being stuck in the minority. Ami was picked by fan Erik Reichenbach to join the new Malakal. The new Malakal consisted of Ozzy, Joel Anderson, Amanda, Erik, Ami, Tracy Hughes-Wolf, Cirie, and Chet Welch. Unfortunately, the new Malakal generally lost in many challenges, though this gave new light to Ami, as Ozzy, Amanda, and Cirie convinced her to align with them to vote out fans Joel, Erik, Tracy, and Chet. Ami joined the new Couples Alliance and stayed in a very secure position. However, when Malakal lost the Day 20 Immunity Challenge, while the initial target was Tracy, Amanda and Cirie wanted to vote out Erik over Tracy, and the remaining fans wanted to vote out Ozzy. Ami hatched a plan: Ami would tell Ozzy that she'd vote Tracy, she'd convince Cirie and Amanda to vote Erik with her, but in reality, Ami would blindside Ozzy along with the remaining fans, Tracy and Erik. Though the plan was brilliant, in the end, Ami stayed loyal to the favorites and voted out Tracy over Ozzy. Malakal lost the final Tribal Immunity Challenge on Day 21, due to Airai exiling Ozzy, who's strength was needed in challenges. The last fan on Malakal, Erik, knew he was on the chopping block. However, Erik decided to turn the tables on Ami, revealing to Amanda and Cirie that Ami was planning on betraying Ozzy. This didn't change Amanda and Cirie's minds, forcing Erik to convince kingpin Ozzy to vote out Ami after betraying the favorites. Ozzy agreed with Erik, and tried to convince his alliance to vote out Ami. At Tribal Council, Ozzy pointed out Ami's crafty work, but Ami desperately denied this, saying that the favorites could stick together during the merge and that she was an excellent ally. Despite all her reasons why she was legible to stay in the game, Ozzy felt he couldn't trust Ami any longer and she was voted out in a unanimous 4-1 vote.
Voting History
| Ami's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Ami's Votes |
Voted Against Ami |
| 1 | Jon | - |
| 2 | Malakal Tribe Immune | |
| 3 | Cirie | - |
| 4 | Malakal Tribe Immune | |
| 5 | Joel | - |
| 6 | No Tribal Council | |
| Chet | - | |
| 7 | No Tribal Council | |
| Tracy | - | |
| 8 | Erik | Amanda, Cirie, Erik, Ozzy |
| Voted Out, Day 21 | ||
Post-Survivor
- Ami attended the 10th anniversary party of Survivor.
Trivia
- Ami was the only female Malakal member to not make the merge in Survivor: Micronesia.
- Whenever Ami got votes at Tribal Council, she received exactly four.
- In both seasons Ami competed in, there was an all-female alliance. The Yasur Alliance failed, while the Black Widow Brigade succeeded.
- Ami is openly bisexual.
- Ami was involved in two tribe switches but always stayed on the same tribe.
- In Micronesia, Ami was the only person voted out between the switch and the merge to not switch tribes.
- Ami is the first female to have individual immunity in the tribal stage of the game.
References
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External links
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