Keith Famie

Keith Famie is a contestant from.

He is remembered most for proposing to his girlfriend at a Reward Challenge through a computer.

Profile
Born and raised in Farmington Hills, Michigan, Keith Famie currently makes his home in West Bloomfield, Michigan. While still attending high school, he began working in restaurant kitchens and after graduation, traveled the world working in hotels located in such exotic locales as Brussels, Monte Carlo and New York.

In 1988 Famie opened his own restaurant, Les Auteurs an American Bistro, and in the same year was recognized in Food & Wine as one of the "10 Best New Chefs" and Les Auteurs was featured in Esquire Magazine's "Best New Restaurants of 1988." During 1993, Famie began appearing in cooking segments called "Famie's Adventures in Cooking" for local Detroit television stations. The popular segments ultimately led to several half-hour specials airing in Detroit. In 1996 Famie opened Forte and was selected yet again in Esquire's yearly "Best New Restaurants" Â— this time in 1997. Last year, he produced and hosted his first one-hour prime time Emmy-nominated special, From Hanoi to China Beach a Taste of the Exotic, a documentary that was based on a journey through Vietnam with three Vietnam veterans on bicycles. Before it aired in Detroit, the special previewed at the local Fox Theater. This spring his cookbook, Famie's Adventures in Cooking, will be published by Sleeping Bear Press.

Famie is a divorced father of two children, Josh and Alicia, and describes himself as creative, adventurous, and just happy to be alive each day, or as he puts it "everyday I wake up is a good Day". In addition to spending time with his kids, Famie enjoys biking, weight lifting, scuba diving, dirt bike riding, wall climbing, herb gardening, touring unusual markets, collecting art, tennis and hiking in the mountains.

Famie was recently voted President of the Rainbow Connection after a two-year stint as Vice President. The Rainbow Connection is a non-profit organization that helps grant wishes for children with life threatening illnesses in Michigan. In addition, he is in the process of developing a new foundation, IKAN or International Kid's Alliance Network, a special internet-based program for children to be able to develop pen pals and participate in live chat sessions with each other. To date, he has orchestrated two such chat sessions, one from Sydney, Australia and the other from Guadalajara, Mexico.

His birth date is February 11, 1960.

Survivor: The Australian Outback
Keith was able to prove himself to the Ogakor tribe on their hike to their camp on the first day by scouting ahead and leading his tribe to it. He and Jerri sparred over the building of their shelter, and on the second day they had disagreements over how and where to start their fire. Keith attempted to start their fire for hours, while attempting to ease the tension with Jerri by having her play her luxury item, a drum, to help him and Amber stay in rhythm as they tried to spark a fire.

On Day 5, his other tribe mates started to complain about his cooking of the rice, which was making it sticky and not eatable. His pride was hurt when Jerri decided to make a dough out of the mushy rice in order to serve tortillas. After she was successful in making it taste good, the tribe wanted Jerri to take over cooking.

When Ogakor lost the second Immunity Challenge, Keith's name was floated around as a possible target for elimination because he had rubbed some people the wrong way. However, in the end, Keith voted for Kel who was eliminated unanimously.

After his tribe won fishing gear in the third Reward Challenge, Keith was once again allowed the chance to prove himself to his tribe when he was able to prepare their catches for them, though maybe it was for naught.

After losing the third Immunity Challenge, Keith tried to campaign for the elimination of Mitchell, one of Jerri's allies, but failed, and instead Maralyn was voted out. Losing another Immunity Challenge sent Ogakor back to Tribal Council, where Jerri singled out Amber, Mitchell and Colby as her friends, leaving out Keith and Tina as outsiders. Out of necessity, Keith aligned himself to Tina. Unknown to Manthey, Colby also despised her, thus having a deadlock tie between Keith and Mitchell. But it was Keith that sent Mitchell home because of the former voted him at the previous Tribal Council. Keith eventually became one of the ten castaways who would comprise the Barramundi tribe.

At the merge with the numbers at 5 all between the tribes the next vote was pivotal. In the Immunity Challenge Keith lasted more than ten hours before Tina decided to give Keith the victory to assist Ogakor in gaining the numbers. They were successful as Jeff was eliminated after a tiebreaker.

Keith won the first two Individual Immunity Challenges. But with the strong Ogakor alliance, he became virtually indispensable, despite his unpopularity. During a vicious storm, Keith was responsible for finding their remaining rice supply, though his bad reputation continued.

Colby, Tina and Keith were in total control of the alliance, who successfully eliminated three of the five ex-Kuchas, though they also sent Jerri and Amber packing when they afforded to. After the last remaining Kucha's downfall, Keith, Colby and Tina remained as the final three. Colby thought that Tina was more deserving than Keith, causing the latter's demise in a 1-0 vote.

At the Final Tribal Council, Keith voted for Tina because of her strategic gameplay and his friendship with her.

Voting History
In The Killing Fields, the vote ended with a 3-3 tie between Keith and Mitchell, forcing a revote. Nobody changed their votes on the revote, eliminating Mitchell due to previous votes against him. In The Merge, the vote ended with a 5-5 tie between Jeff and Colby, forcing a revote. Keith did not change his vote on the revote.

Post-Survivor

 * Keith HollywoodSquares.jpg May 2001, The cast of The Australian Outback appeared on Hollywood Squares as panelists for Survivor Week. Keith himself was featured in the first two episodes.
 * Keith had an show, Keith Famie's Adventures that aired from 2003-2004 on Food Network.
 * Keith, since his appearance, has created a few Emmy winning documentaries.

Trivia

 * Keith's luxury item was a Paella Pan.
 * Keith and Michael Skupin are the first contestants from Michigan.
 * Keith is the oldest male on Ogakor.
 * Keith is the first chef on Survivor.
 * Keith is the first male contestant to win two consecutive Individual Immunity Challenges.
 * Keith holds the record for playing the most days among those who played only once - 41 days, since his season was the longest, lasting 42 days. This record will not likely be broken since subsequent seasons were reverted to the 39-day format of the previous season. He is tied with Jonny Fairplay on the most days played list for 40th place, both having played for 41 days.
 * Keith is the only contestant to be voted off on Day 41.
 * Keith is one of two contestants (the other being Elisabeth Filarski) to reach Day 39 and not be one of the finalists.
 * He is the first contestant named Keith to be the last one voted out of the game. He would later be followed by Keith Nale of Survivor: San Juan del Sur.
 * Keith is the only male contestant to vote for Tina Wesson to become Sole Survivor.
 * Among the five Ogakor members who made the merge, only Keith did not return in a future season.
 * During the Survivor: The Australian Outback Reunion Show, it was mentioned that Keith was originally slated for.
 * Keith was originally slated for Borneo but because all the spots were filled he got to compete on Survivor: The Australian Outback.
 * Keith was adopted at a young age. His biological father was the legendary former Key West mayor, Captain Tony Tarracino.
 * Keith's recipe for his Paella was included on the Survivor: The Australian Outback DVD as a special feature as well as a step-by-step demonstration video done by Keith.