Jerri Manthey

Jerri Lynn Manthey was a contestant in Australia, All-Stars and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. She placed 8th, 10th and 4th respectively.

Australia
Jerri Manthey has been living in Los Angeles, California, for the last six years, pursuing her acting career while bartending to help pay the bills. She credits her acting coach, Manu Tupou, with whom she has been studying with for four years, for pushing her beyond her own limitations and encouraging her to write and direct, as well. Her biggest accomplishment was a play that she and her best friend wrote, directed and produced, titled Beautiful Chaos, for the Hudson Theater in Los Angeles. Additionally, she has had roles in various independent films, commercials, and feature films, including the telefilm That Championship Season.

As Manthey puts it, she grew up an "army brat"; her father served 28 years in the United States Army, having retired in 1997. Due to the military way of life, she moved every three to four years of her childhood, spending a total of 12 years on various Army bases in Germany. Graduating from high school in 1988 in Neu Ulm, she then attended the University of Maryland in Munich, Germany.

Manthey describes herself as adventurous, fun loving, spontaneous, honest, and kind. Her favorite hobbies include photography, cooking, painting, writing, reading, and her all-time favorite, camping. She enjoys hiking and/or backpacking to very remote, unknown places in order to escape the craziness of Los Angeles. Her favorite event is Burning Man, a festival that takes place every year in the vast, barren Black Rock desert of Nevada. She has gone for the last two years and says she will go every year for as long as she lives or until the event no longer takes place. At Burning Man 2000, she and a group of friends from all over California organized a theme camp and stayed for 12 days. They built their own shelter and brought all the supplies necessary to survive in the harsh environment and extreme weather. Manthey named their temporary residence "Camp Chaos" and adopted the slogan "The Ultimate Order Lies in Chaos," a motto she believes applies directly to her life.

A perfect day for Manthey always begins with a cup of coffee! Then, a hike in one of the various canyons of Los Angeles, playing with her dog Gidget and her cat Kiya, writing in her journal, surfing the net, e-mailing, watching a good movie, spending time with a close friend over dinner, and curling up with a good book. Her favorite movies are The Big Lebowski and Search for the Holy Grail. Her favorite TV shows are The Sopranos and Sex and the City. She enjoys all types of music-depending on her mood- ranging from Al Green and Barry White to Creed and Tonic. When she's ready to dance, she enjoys funky, soulful, house music.

Manthey was born in Bad Konstatt Hospital on the Army base in Stuttgart, Germany. She is proud to report that her mother and father--both from South Dakota--are still together and happily married. She has two brothers and one sister. Her birth date is September 5, 1970.

Survivor: The Australian Outback
Jerri proved to be a strategic player from Day 1, where she revealed in a confessional she was viewing everything that her tribe mates did as a 'strategic' move as they started building their shelter. Early on she got into conflict with Keith over disagreements of how to build their shelter.

"ogakor"

- Keith and I didn't start off on a very good foot because of some of the condescending remarks he made to me. He might not very well be aware that he does it, but I'm not the kind of person that lets it slide off my back.

She continued to butt heads with Keith on the second day, when she insisted they move their fire pit to where they wanted to keep it before they actually started the fire. On Day 5, Jerri took over cooking after the tribe complained about Keith's undercooked rice (with Jerri even gloating that 'a chef doesn't know how to cook rice'). As a solution, Jerri made use of the flour they had to make a tortilla with the tribe ended up satisfied. Despite Keith complimenting her cooking, the tension between the two was as strong as ever.

In an infamous survivor moment, Jerri accused Kel of eating beef jerky, prohibited by the rules of the game. This angered his tribe mates who were starving. Jerri, Amber and  Tina looked through his bag to see if there was any beef jerky, but there was none. Kel overheard the conversation and confronted the tribe, who all believed he had been eating beef jerky.

After Ogakor lost the second immunity challenge, Jerri came up as a target because of her rough personality and her general unpleasantness. She herself was seeking to vote off Kel because she considered him a liar and a cheater. Her arguments won over her tribemates, and the tribe eliminated Kel unanimously. She confessed that she was attracted to Colby, and tried ways to lure him to potentially make an alliance. Much to her efforts, Colby seemed unaffected.

"ogakor"

- Oh, I think Jerri is legitimately attracted to Colby, but I'm sure that strategic play is involved. There's no question.

After the merge, she, and the rest of the five remaining Ogakors stayed strong during the first two Tribal Councils, eliminating two of their former Kucha opponents. But Tina Wesson, Keith Famie and Colby Donaldson felt that they can now afford losing one of their won since they still have the majority, and with the help of the three remaining Kucha members, Manthey was their first victim. As a juror, she cast her vote for eventual winner Tina Wesson.

Survivor: All-Stars
Manthey's iconic showing in Australia earned her a spot in Survivor: All-Stars, where she was placed in the Saboga tribe.

Despite her resolve to not be overly-opinionated, she and Rupert Boneham argued over conflicting plans for a Reward Challenge, where they are to create the best tribe shelter. After the argument, the tribe decided to follow Rupert's plan, digging an underground log cabin. Not only they lost the challenge, they found their shelter ineffective during a storm, with the log cabin completely filled with water, leaving Saboga unprotected from the harsh weather, making Jerri very emotional. Despite her tribe's misfortunes, Jerri rallied Saboga to win their first immunity. The victory was short-lived, when Saboga lost the following [special] challenge, where Saboga will be dissolved, while its remaining members will be distributed to the other two tribes. Jerri, along with Ethan went to Mogo Mogo, reuniting with Colby.

After helping the tribe voting out Richard Hatch, Jerri decided to seek revenge for Colby's perceived mistreatment of her back in Australia. With Colby gone, Jerri helped the tribe eliminate his closest ally Ethan (the last former winner and Jerri's tribemate from Saboga) was next to go.

Day 22, the tribes anticipated a merge, only to reveal a tribe shuffle. Remarkably, the random shuffle resulted in every member of Mogo Mogo trading with a member of Chapera, leaving Amber as the only remaining Chapera member on a tribe with Kathy, Manthey, Lex van den Berghe, and Shii Ann Huang. Jerri was delighted to be with her "Outback Sister."

After Chapera lost the next Immunity Challenge, Boston Rob (Amber's closest ally) felt distraught at the prospect of Amber being sent home - and immediately made a hasty protection deal with Lex after the challenge. Lex was forced to weigh his options: either throwing a wrench at Rob and the former Chapera members in the event of a merge, or cutting loose his loyal ally Jerri. Eventually, with Kathy's help, Lex decided to boot out Jerri, who was voted out unanimously.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains
Jerri's notoriety earned her a spot on the Villains tribe. Jerri initially had a special friendship with fellow Villain Coach Wade, with their tribemates often teasing them about the "Dragon Slayer" and the "Black Widow" being lovers. At first, Jerri was aligned with Boston Rob, Coach, Courtney, Tyson, and Sandra, and played a part in the split vote on day 15, but eventually she became a focal point to Russell Hantz's rise to power over the Villains tribe by helping his alliance (comprising of outsiders Parvati Shallow and Danielle DiLorenzo) to vote off Russell's archenemy Rob Mariano, despite having conflicts with Shallow in the beginning.

At the first post-merge vote, Parvati gave her a Hidden Immunity Idol, thus negating all votes against her. This eventually became the subsequent downfall of the Heroes. She eventually won one Reward Challenge and one Immunity Challenge (much to her delight, for it was her first). When Russell wanted to get rid of Danielle on Day 33, Jerri would once again become a pivotal swing vote and played a part in Danielle's elimination. Russell feared that Jerri might win because of her popularity (and stipulated that the final four was also comprised of Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine, both of whom are former winners). Russell also deemed that even if he voted her out, she would still vote for him at the Final Tribal Council. This theory turned out to be incorrect, when Jerri felt appalled by his prediction. She then found herself voting her "frenemy" Parvati, though she lost over Sandra.

Post-Survivor
Following her appearance on Survivor, Manthey appeared on The Young and the Restless. Manthey posed nude in the September 2001 issue of Playboy. She also appeared in the movies Destiny (2002) and Komodo vs. Cobra (2005). She worked as a sideline reporter on the TV series Extreme Dodgeball during its first season, but did not return for the second or third season. She also appeared in the music video for "Faith Hill"'s version of Piece Of My Heart.

On March 3, 2010, while Heroes vs. Villains was still being aired, Manthey was purged from a US Airways flight in Charlotte, North Carolina after a disagreement with the flight crew. She posted an open letter to US Airways management on her Facebook page sharing the details of her experience.

Trivia

 * Jeff Probst noted that her performance in Heroes vs. Villains "everything came together." Jerri felt delighted to learn that she was came across as more likeable compared to abrasive showing in her first two seasons.
 * Jerri did better than rival Colby Donaldson in two out of their three seasons they competed in.
 * Jerri currently holds the record of having the most votes in several seasons, garnering 23 (28 if 5 votes canceled due to a hidden immunity idol are counted).