Amber Brkich

Name: Amber Brkich
Birth Name: Amber Joy Brkich
Height: 5 feet, 6 inches
Sex: Female
Nationality: American
Birth Date: August 11, 1978
Birth Place: Beaver, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Winner of Survivor All-Stars and is currently affiliated with TV Guide. Fast becoming a professional reality TV contestant (Survivor and Amazing Race), Amber has also appeared in numerous television commercials and makes guest appearances around the country.
Education: Attended Beaver Area High School and graduated at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. degree in Public Relations, minor in Speech Communications.
Relationship: Engaged to fellow Survivor castaway Rob Mariano
Sister: One sister
Brother: One brother
Claim to fame: Winner of Survivor: All Stars and $1 million dollars
Facts: Her surname is Croatian (Brkić); was on the Dean's list five consecutive times during college; her previous occupations while attending school included waitress, librarian assistant, swimming instructor, lifeguard and babysitter for her professor; her convertible's license plate bears the slogan "Srvivr 2.” She turned down Playboy, but posed for free in Stuff magazine's July 2001 issue. She is engaged to fellow Survivor castaway Rob Mariano; teamed up with fiancé Rob in The Amazing Race 7.
Awards: 2004 Nominated Teen Choice Award ‘Choice Reality/Variety TV Star – Female’ for "Survivor: All-Stars"

Filmography: Actress

• "The Amazing Race 7" (2005) TV Series
• "Survivor: All-Stars" (2004) TV Series (Sole Survivor, 39 Days, Chapera/Chaboga Mogo Tribes)]
• Survivor: The Amazon - The Reunion (2003) (TV)
• Survivor: The Australian Outback - The Reunion (2001) (TV)
• "Survivor: The Australian Outback" (2001) TV Series (33 Days, Ogakor/Barramundi Tribes)]
• Survivor - Season Two: The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments (2001)


Biography
Amber Brkich is the winner of the $1M prize money of Survivor: All-Stars, and was originally a contestant on Survivor: The Australian Outback. On May 9, 2004, she accepted fellow All-Stars competitor Rob Mariano's proposal of marriage on live television and is now planning to televise their wedding with CBS. As a couple, Brkich and Mariano have participated in the seventh season of The Amazing Race.
This member of the original Ogakor tribe in Survivor: The Australian Outback hails from Beaver, Pennsylvania. The town is very proud of their hometown girl and there are signs up in her honor in several area businesses. A real hometown Pittsburgh girl, Amber likes Snyder's BBQ Chips, Yuengling Beer and her favorite sports team is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Born Amber Joy Brkich on August 11th, 1978, she was raised by a close Catholic family in Beaver, Pennsylvania, a suburb north and west of Pittsburgh. Amber has one brother and one sister. Their surname is Croatian (Brkić).
As a youth, Brkich attended Beaver Area High School, and then went to Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. She joined the Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority, where she was Vice President and New Member Coordinator.
Her sorority sisters from Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at Westminster College gathered each week to watch her on Survivor: The Australian Outback and raised over $500 for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation by holding raffles in conjunction with the weekly Survivor shows.
Brkich graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Relations with a minor in speech communications. Brkich was even on the Dean's list five consecutive times during college.

She turned down Playboy's million dollar offer, but posed for free as the cover girl in Stuff Magazine's July 2001 issue.

Prior to joining Survivor: The Australian Outback, she worked as an administrative assistant. In the second season of Survivor, Amber was the top 6th contestant of the show. She chose a journal and pen as her luxury item for the duration of her stay in The Land Down Under. She lasted 33 days, first with the Ogakor tribe and then joined the Barramundi tribe.
Amber Brkich formed an early alliance with Jerri Manthey while they were still members of the Ogakor tribe. After a shocking Tribal Council, her friend Jerri was voted off by their former tribe members sending Amber into a scramble. She remained loyal to her original tribe, however, but that decision spelled doom for her since she was blindsided a few episodes later when they voted her off 4-2. Amber became the 4th member to join the jury in Survivor - Season Two, where Tina Wesson won 4-3 over Colby Donaldson.
After appearing in Survivor: The Australian Outback, she worked briefly as the host of an adventure travel game on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. She was the vice president of public relations/spokeswoman for Island Quest, a company offering Survivor-themed cruises. Brkich also joined TV Guide.
In 2004, CBS presented Survivor: All Stars, pitting 18 former contestants from different seasons in a battle royale. This season was set in the Pearl Islands and the eighteen castaways were divided into three teams: Chapera, Mogo Mogo, and Saboga, with each tribe named after various parts of the Pearl Islands. These castaways were stranded for up to 39 days off the coast of Panama. This time, Brkich was part of the Chapera Tribe, along with fellow Survivor: The Australian Outback tribemate Alicia Calaway.

During the fifth episode, the Saboga tribe was dissolved and its members distributed between the other two tribes. In the ninth episode, the ten remaining contestants randomly chose new tribal memberships; surprisingly, every contestant but Brkich swapped teams. One episode later, the two teams merged into a new tribe called Chaboga Mogo, named by the castaways themselves.

The final episode of Survivor: All Stars began with "Boston Rob" Mariano's surprise proposal to Amber before the votes were revealed. He pulled a multi-carat diamond ring out of his pocket and proposed marriage to Amber (who was wearing an "I [heart] Rob" t-shirt) who promptly accepted, making them the first engaged Survivor couple.

When the votes were finally announced, Amber Brkich beat Rob Mariano four to three, making her the "Ultimate Sole Survivor" -- and his future wife as well.

She is distinguished as the first Survivor winner to have beaten the "Survivor curse," in that she won a car (a new Chevy) and ultimately went on to be the sole Survivor in Survivor: All Stars. In previous Survivor seasons, all the contestants who had won a car ultimately failed to become the sole Survivor.

Amber Brkich also holds the record as having the second longest stay in Survivor with her record of 72 days (33 days in Survivor: The Australian Outback and 39 days during Survivor: All Stars). Tom Buchanan has been on Survivor the longest, lasting a total of 73 days (across two seasons).

Post-Survivor Activities

Since finishing as the million dollar winner of Survivor: All-Stars, Brkich has enjoyed making dozens of public appearances across the country and has taken part in various charity functions along with her fiancé and fellow Survivor contestant, “Boston Rob” Mariano. She has also appeared as the official Survivor consultant on the CBS station KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, as well as in several regional and national television commercials.

In the seventh installment of the popular reality television series, The Amazing Race, three reality show alumni were part of this show. These included engaged couple Amber Brkich and Rob Mariano who both appeared on Survivor and Brian Smith appeared on a Christmas episode of the reality show Fear Factor.

Filming for The Amazing Race 7 began on November 20, 2004 and finished on December 17, 2004. The starting point for the season was in Long Beach, California, from where all the contestants headed out to Lima, Peru. In the latest episode of The Amazing Race 7, Rob and Amber never relinquished their lead as they battled for first place. Winning the hard-fought match in Lucknow, India, the couple received a shock when Phil Keoghan told them that he had their next clue. Apparently, the leg was not over so we will have to look out whether this couple will win yet another cool million dollars from the The Amazing Race 7.

Amber has participated in many charity events, including the Reality4Diabetes event in July of 2003. She also hosted a party at Lock 6 in Industry. Those who attended helped her raise more than $1,600 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

She has also appeared in various commercials for Adelphia Cable, Rite Aid drugstores, and Mountaineer Racetrack in West Virginia.

Her brother, Valentine J. Brkich, wrote a book entitled Cageball, Poker, and the Atomic Wedgie, which is getting great reviews.

Amber loves to spend the weekend at a lake near where she lives and often goes quad-riding with her brother and sister and a bunch of her friends. In her free time, Amber enjoys babysitting her niece, Emma, and going out with her friends for dancing and just generally having fun.