Deena Ramirez Bennett is a contestant from Survivor: The Amazon.
Profile
Bennett currently works as a Deputy District Attorney assigned to the Sexual Assault Child Abuse Unit in Riverside County, Calif. In her words, "If you hurt, abuse or kill a child, then I am your worst nightmare. Criminal prosecution is my game, protecting the innocent is my aim." She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State, Fullerton and a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota. She would like to be a Superior Court Judge (and has since the 4TH grade). She is a member of the Inland Inferno Triathlon Club and the California State Bar.
Bennett enjoys participating in triathlons, adventure racing and sleeping. She's traveled to Brazil before because she wanted to see the rainforests. She's also traveled to Australia to climb Ayers Rock and dive the Great Barrier Reef. She describes herself as spirited, adventurous and intense. She is most proud of being a mom despite her career accomplishments. If given the choice of being a superhero, she'd want to be Batman because he has all the cool toys and Alfred ("Every mommy in the world needs an Alfred."). Her hero is her husband, Paul, who works as a sheriff's deputy. If she wins the $1 million, she's getting new flooring for her house.
Bennett and her husband have two boys, Zachary and Caleb. They live in Riverside, Calif., with their two dogs, birds and fish. Her birth date is February 12, 1967.
Survivor: The Amazon
Deena Bennett was placed on the all-female Jaburu tribe. Deena was happy because see did not have to worry about privacy and was on a equal playing field because the tribe was all of the same sex. However, camp life was unorganized due to lack of leadership. Despite that, the women eventually won the first challenge of the season because the men had trouble with the balance beam. The women won the next reward challenge. Despite that, camp was still unorganized. Things got worst when a granola bar wrapper was discovered at camp. Jeanne Hebert felt that Janet Koth smuggled the bar. Jaburu lost the Immunity Challenge and Janet was voted out for being the weakest person on the tribe, as well for being blamed for the alleged smuggling incident.
Jaburu won the reward challenge for toiletries. Deena was voted the leader of the Jaburu tribe. Under Deena's leadership, camp life improved significantly. Jaburu also won immunity. Deena was approached by Shawna Mitchell about joining her alliance with Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel. Feeling that she could easily control the young women, Deena accepted. Tambaqui won the reward challenge. After the loss, Shawna had a breakdown and asked to be voted out. Jaburu lost the immunity challenge and Shawna asked for her request to be granted. However, Deena wanted to vote out Joanna Ward because of her threat status.Deena felt that Shawna needed to be stronger, so she convinced Christy Smith to vote out Joanna. Deena's plan came to fruition and Joanna was voted out in a 4-2-1 vote.
Jeanne was very angry that Joanna was voted out instead Shawna. Deena tried to tell her that she was important, but Jeanne didn't believe it. Shawna was also angry that she was still in the game. The next tree mail said that the youngest must go on a night of fun, which was obviously Jenna. When Jenna returned, she said that Heidi, Christy and Jeanne would go to Tambaqui. They would be replaced by Alex Bell, Rob Cesternino and Matthew von Ertfelda. Shawna sparked back up in the presence of the men, particularly Alex. Deena was worried about this as she may be into Alex more that a women's alliance. Jaburu won the immunity challenge. At the next reward challenge, Deena sat out. Tambaqui won the challenge. Deena was approach by Rob to form an alliance, which Deena accepted. After losing the immunity challenge, Alex and Shawna decided to vote out Matthew. Worried about loyalty, Shawna was voted out.
Deena missed Shawna because of the spark she had. The next day, the tribes was allowed to open the box that there since day one. It said the tribes had merged. Deena immediately got into conflict with Roger Sexton because of their personalities. Deena initially targeted Dave Johnson for his athleticism. However, Heidi and Jenna convinced Deena to vote out Roger because he would not vote for a women at tribal council. Deena was the one to win immunity after beating Christy in rock-paper-scissors. Everything fell into motion and Roger was voted out in a 7-3 vote. Deena was particularly happy that Roger was gone. At the reward challenge, Deena was teamed with Dave and Alex. They won the first round and made it to the final round. Although she did not won the challenge herself, Dave picked Deena to go on reward with him since she picked the number he was thinking of. Dave tried to turn the vote against Matthew, who was obsessing with the machete. When they returned, Dave and Deena still wanted Matthew out. This irked Jenna and Heidi. Jenna won immunity and Dave was unanimously voted out
Deena started worrying about Alex's threat status and wanted to vote him out should Matthew win immunity. At the reward challenge, Deena was eliminated in the second round. Alex won the challenge and picked Jenna to join him. While they were away, Deena talked to Rob about voting out Alex if Matthew wins immunity. At the immunity challenge, it was an eating contest. Deena made it to the final round. However, she made no attempt to eat the live grub. This allowed Matthew to win immunity. Deena was confident that Alex was going to be voted out. However, Deena was blindsided at Tribal Council.
At Final Tribal Council, Deena asked Jenna if the jury's vote should be based on need rather than game play. Jenna said yes, need should play more role into the decision process because that how she would do it. Deena pointed out that Matthew had earlier said "May the best man win", which she viewed as sexist. Matthew regretted saying that (even though he didn't remember saying it), stating he was not a chauvinist. Matthew was actually happy that Deena did bring it up because it may reflect the fact that he assumed a male victory. Deena thanked the finalists for their answers. More impressed with Jenna's answer, Deena voted out her to win.
Voting History
| Deena's Voting History | ||
|---|---|---|
| Episode | Deena's Votes |
Voted Against Deena |
| 1 | Jaburu Tribe Immune | |
| 2 | Janet | - |
| 3 | Jaburu Tribe Immune | |
| 4 | Joanna | - |
| 5 | Jaburu Tribe Immune | |
| 6 | Shawna | - |
| 7 | Roger | Individual Immunity |
| 8 | Dave | - |
| 9 | Alex | Alex, Butch, Heidi, Jenna, Matthew, Rob |
| Voted Out, Day 27 | ||
| Voted for Sole Survivor |
Jenna | |
Post-Survivor
- On January 9, 2010, Deena attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party.
Trivia
- Deena's luxury items were water balloons.
- Deena only voted against women before the merge and only voted against men after the merge.
- Deena is the first Hispanic-American contestant to last longer than 6 days in the game.
- She is also the first Hispanic-American jury member.
- Deena was the first woman to win individual immunity since Helen Glover won in Thailand.
- Deena is the only Amazon jury member to never be a member of Tambaqui.
References
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