Shii Ann Huang
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Shii Ann Huang (Chinese: 黃璽安, pinyin: Huáng Xǐān) (her first name is pronounced like the English word "she"), from New York City was a contestant on the American reality show, Survivor: Thailand in 2002 and on Survivor: All-Stars in 2004.
Huang was born on January 24, 1974 in Taipei, Taiwan. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was eight years old. Huang lived in New Jersey and Arizona. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master's degree at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. She resided in New York City and worked as a headhunter for technology and finance search boutique Grady Levkov & Company at the time she auditioned for Survivor. Her application video featured cameos by several Grady Levkov employees, notably Controller Paul Johneas, who humorously played against type as an underemployed slacker in a career counseling session with Shii Ann. Further, Shii Ann appeared on the Grady Levkov balcony in the opening credits of her "Survivor" episodes, against a panorama of lower Broadway in Soho.
During her first time on Survivor, the self-proclaimed "Shii-Devil" managed to gross out some of her tribemates when she consumed chicken parts that, as she explained, may not be normally eaten in Western cultures. Shii Ann having spent time in Asia and being of Asian heritage had grown accustomed to eating them. Shii kept quiet for the most part, but had no compunctions about telling people like it is when confronted. This gave her a reputation as being a "bitch" by some of her fellow tribemates, and caused her dislike for several of her own tribe members. A new twist in the show during the Thailand season happened when Jeff Probst told the two tribes that they would be living together from that point on, which contestants assumed meant that the two tribes had merged into one, as had happened during past seasons. But, unlike past seasons, this was not a tribal "merge"--Probst explained at the next immunity challenge that although they were all living together at one camp, they were still two separate tribes. This new twist is ultimately why Shii Ann was voted off during Thailand, since she had quickly abandoned her original tribe members for the other tribe members when she assumed a merge had happened.
In All-Stars, Shii made it to the final six and was the final surviving member of her original tribe. Due to tribal merges and rearrangings--there were initially three tribes of six during All-Stars, as opposed to the usual two tribes of eight--Shii and her allies Lex and Kathy were picked off one by one by the Rob Mariano-Amber Brkich alliance. In the final seven Shii knew she was destined to be the next voted off and knew she had to win the next immunity challenge. In a shocking turn of events she defeated Rupert & Tom in a physically enduring challenge and created one of the season's most hilarious moments by shouting "YEAH! TAKE THAT!" to her rivals and smirked while watching Alicia get voted out and therefore crumbling the Chapera/Saboga alliance. But in the final six, Shii's desperate attempts to sway "Big Tom" Buchanan, Rupert Boneham, and/or Jenna Lewis to side with her against what she termed the "Power Couple" of Rob and Amber were unsuccessful as each of the other three believed Rob had their best interests at heart.
Knowing she would be voted out at Tribal Council, she took the opportunity to expose the two "Power Couples" (Rob-Amber and Rupert-Jenna, who also had a strong alliance) to each other and to Big Tom, so that no one could pretend not to know of the alliances. She also "outed" Amber as being the person most likely to win the game because no one recognized her deception as they did Rob's, and warned others to be wary of her.
Amber Brkich did go on to win the million dollar prize. She was then told she could choose another player to receive a free automobile. She gave the car to Shii Ann who she credited as being the swing vote in her 4-3 victory.
Shii Ann is currently working in New York as a Senior Associate for the Corcoran Group, a prominent realtor.
