Jenna Morasca

Name: Jenna Morasca
Birth Name: Jenna Morasca
Sex: Female
Nationality: American
Birth Date: February 15, 1981
Birth Place: Bridgeville, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Swimsuit Model,Actress
Education: Studying at University of Pittsburgh, majoring in zoology
Relationship: Dating Ethan Zohn, winner of Survivor: Africa
Father: Michael Morasca
Mother: Carla Morasca (succumbed to breast cancer on November 19, 2003)
Sister: None
Brother: None
Claim to fame: Infamous for stripping on national television for peanut butter and Oreo cookies during her stint as a contestant in Survivor: The Amazon, which ultimately won her a spread in the August 2003 edition of Playboy magazine.
Facts: She replaced Richard Hatch as co-host (with Dalton Ross) of CBS' Survivor Live, a talk show devoted to the current season of the series; Jenna guest-starred in the Off-Broadway play Pieces in New York City, which ultimately led to an invitation to join the cast permanently for its six-week run.
Awards: She has won the Venus Swimwear competition two years in a row (2001 and 2002); She was second runner-up in the Miss Pennsylvania U.S.A. beauty pageant in 2001; She also won the Hawaiian Tropic Regionals 2002, which was held in Sharon, PA. Jenna was declared as Miss Pa. American COED in 2000.

Filmography

• "Survivor: All-Stars" (2004) TV Series (9 Days, Mogo Mogo Tribe)
• Real Hot (2004) (TV)
• "Survivor: The Amazon" (2003) TV Series (Sole Survivor, 39 Days, Jaburu/Jacaré Tribes)
• Survivor: The Amazon - The Reunion (2003) (TV)


Biography
Jenna Morasca was originally a member of the tribe Jaburu in the reality TV series Survivor: The Amazon, where she bagged the million-dollar grand prize after outwitting, out playing and out lasting 15 other castaways. Morasca also appeared on Survivor: All-Stars but in its third episode which aired on February 12, 2004, she quit the game to be with her dying mother. Her mother passed away a few days later from breast cancer.
Born in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, on February 15, 1981, Jenna is the only daughter of Michael and Carla Morasca.
In her CBS profile, Morasca revealed that her hobbies include horseback riding, sleeping and hanging out with her pets (she has a dog, a ferret, three birds, two guinea pigs and a fish). Her favorite sport is football, and her favorite teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos. She looks up to her mother, who fought breast cancer for over ten years. Prior to her wining the grand prize, she shared that she would buy a car and put a huge sound system in it, chrome wheels and detailing. Aside from this, she also wanted to win so she could pay off her family's bills and take a trip to Italy with her mom and dad.
While competing in beauty pageants, Morasca models swimwear on a freelance basis too. She has won the Venus Swimwear competition two years in a row (2001 and 2002) and was second runner-up in the Miss Pennsylvania U.S.A. beauty pageant in 2001. At the time of filming for Survivor: The Amazon, she was a junior at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in zoology.

Amazon Girl

Survivor: The Amazon was the sixth installment of the popular television reality show Survivor. Filmed on location at Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the show’s 13 episodes aired weekly in the United States on CBS from February 13 - May 11, 2003.

Sixteen castaways were sent to the Amazon for the chance to win one million dollars and the title of "Ultimate Sole Survivor." It started out and ended as a battle of the sexes between the all-female Jaburu and the all-male Tambaqui, which was eventually merged into the Jacare tribe.
Morasca's performance on Survivor: The Amazon was made notorious when she stripped down to the flesh for peanut butter and Oreo cookies. During their 20th day in the Amazon, the castaways participated in a “Stand on a Perch” challenge. The only rule was that they should not fall off their post while host Jeff Probst tempts them with food. The last one standing gets the fashionable feather necklace and Immunity from the next Tribal Council.
In his first attempt to lure them from their post, Jeff offers them peanut butter and cookies, to which Jenna replied, “I’ll take my clothes off for some chocolate and peanut butter.” Fellow castaway Heidi Strobel agreed and almost immediately, the two girls remove their clothes, jump in the water, swim to the boat, and dig into their “hard earned” plate of cookies and peanut butter.
Being 21 years old at the time of filming, this swimsuit model from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the youngest castaway ever to win Survivor. She beat out Matthew von Ertfelda for the million dollar prize by a vote of 6-1.
Morasca was extremely unpopular with many viewers of Survivor: The Amazon due to her comments about older women and her treatment of other players. This led Morasca to note that she would be remembered as "that bitch who took her clothes off." Nevertheless, her nude exploits won her (and fellow Survivor castaway Heidi Strobel) a spread in Playboy magazine.
Aside from her nude exploits in the Amazon, Morasca again appeared near-nude in an ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) with her boyfriend, Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn. In 2005, Morasca replaced Richard Hatch, winner of Survivor: Palau Tiga, as co-host (with Dalton Ross) of CBS' Survivor Live, a talk show devoted to the current season of the series.

There was a controversy before the Amazon winner was allowed to participate in the PETA anti-fur campaign when CBS cited her contract that stated the network has final say when and where participants may appear. Jenna was supposed to slip into a fake fur bikini for a PETA print ad, but CBS execs pulled out the rug at the 11th hour. According to PETA spokesman Michael McGraw, they originally wanted to capitalize on Jenna’s Survivor notoriety but the network insisted that they could not mention the word Survivor --the title of the show-- or the word ‘survive.’ However, CBS reversed its decision and allowed Jenna to pose for the advocacy campaign with boyfriend Ethan Zohn.

Morasca again participated in the CBS reality TV series as a castaway for Survivor: All-Stars in 2004. This time, eighteen castaways were divided into three tribes of six and stranded for up to 39 days off the coast of Panama. The three teams: Chapera, Mogo Mogo, and Saboga, consisted of 18 former contestants from different seasons of the Survivor series. This season was set in the Pearl Islands and the eighteen castaways wre stranded for up to 39 days off the coast of Panama. In this eighth installment of the smash-hit series, Morasca was part of the Mogo Mogo tribe, along with Richard Hatch, winner of Survivor: Palau Tiga.
The former Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca decided to quit the game after little more than a week to return home and be with her mother, whose on-going battle with breast cancer had apparently taken a turn for the worse before Jenna's departure. Saying that she regretted her earlier decision to leave home to participate in the competition, Jenna departed the island immediately, resulting in no immunity challenge and three more days of participation for the other fifteen castaways remaining in the game. In hindsight, her move was clearly the proper decision, since her mother Carla Morasca died on November 19, 2003, only eight days after Jenna's return home.

Since her appearance in Survivor, Morasca has been using her celebrity to deliver an important message to high school and college students. She starred in a public service announcement about dissection created by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). In this ad, Jenna points out: “With all the great new alternatives to dissection, there’s no need to harm animals now or ever.”
As a zoology major of the University of Pittsburgh, Jenna refused to participate in animal dissection for a biology class and her grade suffered. She now advocates other methods of studying the physiology of animals without the need for harming them.

Jenna got a chance to demonstrate her acting skills when she guest-starred in the off-Broadway play Pieces in New York City, which ultimately led to an invitation to join the cast permanently for its six-week run. Like Jenna, several former reality television contestants made their off-Broadway debuts in Pieces (of Ass), which opened July 13 at Theatre 80 in the Big Apple.
The play featured guest stars Trishelle Cannatella (MTV's "Real World"), Krista Allen ("Baywatch"), Kirsten Buschbacher (ABC's "The Bachelor"), Carol Grow (FHM's "100 Most Beautiful Women") Lori Heuring ("Mulholland Drive,” "The In-Crowd") and Playboy covergirl Jenna Morasca (CBS' “Survivor: The Amazon” winner). Conceived and directed by Brian Howie, Pieces (of Ass) features a series of monologues from a rotating cast of beautiful women, all dealing with themes uniquely common to the physically blessed female; the perks and privileges, the problems and pressures of being a woman.

The 21-year-old Morasca and fifth place finisher Heidi Strobel, age 24, went on to be featured a nude pictorial for the August 2003 issue of Playboy magazine. According to the New York Post, Jenna could earn another $1 million or more - depending on sales of the magazine - for the Playboy cover feature. As it turns out, the issue was the second highest selling of the year.
The photo session took place in a Brooklyn studio last June 2003, the morning after Jenna was crowned the Amazon winner on a live telecast on May 11. The sexy pictorial reportedly got the approval of Survivor executive producer Mark Burnett and CBS – even though both could have blocked the girls from posing nude. Under the contract Survivor contestants must sign, CBS has the final say when and where participants may appear and who they may give interviews to for up to a year after the show airs. However, the women reportedly had some regrets over the decision since according to the Post, shortly after the shoot, one or both of the girls were said to have tried pulling out of the deal.

Jenna reportedly developed a platonic relationship with fellow Survivor All-Star Ethan Zohn who lost his father to cancer when he was 14. The New York Post's Page Six reported last August 2003 that the two Survivor winners were seen dining together at Rocco's, the featured establishment in NBC's The Restaurant. The two were also photographed together at the "Playboy Triple Platinum Cabana beach party at the Park" the previous night. They officially confirmed they were a couple on the Survivor: All Stars reunion show.