Keith Famie

Keith Famie was a contestant in Survivor: The Australian Outback. He placed third.

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 was unsuccessful, and instead he voted with his tribe against  Maralyn. 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.

Keith won the first two 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 valuing their friendship.

Trivia

 * Keith is the only Survivor that made it most days (41) and played the game only once, since his season was filmed the longest with 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 longest lasting Survivor contestants list for 40th place, both having played for 41 days.
 * Among the five ex-Ogakor Barramundi members, Keith was the only one who never appeared in a future season.
 * Keith is the first male player ever to win two consecutive Individual Immunity challenges.
 * During the Reunion Show, it was mentioned that Keith was originally slated for Survivor: Borneo.
 * Keith's luxury item was a Paella Pan.