'Survivor' Legend Parvati Shallow Announces Upcoming Memoir
"I Survived, Now What" will depict the winner's eventful life before, during, and after her time on the island.
Parvati Shallow has played almost 150 days of Survivor across four seasons and fifteen years. She is regarded as one of the most legendary players in the show's history, a winner and two-time finalist behind some of the most infamous moves the reality series has ever seen. And now she's recounting all of her island time, plus her life before and after, in a newly-announced memoir.
I Survived, Now What is an upcoming book where the current executive coach gets into her life before and after becoming a famous face on national television. According to its official listing, the memoir will be "about the author's journey to healing herself, learning to live a life beyond 'survival mode,' and alchemizing pain and loss into love and empowerment." Among the life events that will be covered are her "traumatic childhood growing up in a cult," her time on Survivor, "and her subsequent fame, notoriety, and struggles with shame and self-hatred."
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Shallow first hit our screens in the fall of 2006, a cast member on the controversial yet well-regarded Survivor: Cook Islands. After being one of the last members of her alliance standing, she returned three seasons as one of the "Favorites" for the legendary Survivor: Micronesia. This season, considered to be one of the greatest in the veteran reality show's history, had her as a part of the infamous "Black Widow Brigade," a women's alliance responsible for some of the biggest blindsides in the show's history. She made it to the end, where the jury crowned her Sole Survivor in a close win.
Shallow next showed up four seasons after her victory, as part of the Villains tribe on the anniversary season Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. Despite entering the game as one of only four previous winners, she was able to work against the odds to astoundingly make it to the final Tribal Council once more. Though she ended up finishing a silver medalist this time, losing to fellow winner Sandra Diaz-Twine, Heroes vs. Villains cemented Parvati's legacy as one of the best to ever play. She took her longest hiatus yet before returning for yet another anniversary season, Survivor: Winners at War. In one of Survivor's most epic installments, she hit the beach again with nineteen other winners in pursuit of a $2 million prize. Though voted out in fifteenth place, she made it to the endgame via the Edge of Extinction twist, ultimately serving on the jury to make Tony Vlachos the second two-time winner in the show's history.
Shallow's association with Survivor has gone beyond her gameplay itself. She was able to parlay her status from the show into a hosting role, emceeing the Survivor Live after show from 2013 to 2014, as well as online travel series Around the World for Free. It even bled into her personal life, as she dated and eventually married Survivor: Samoa alum John Fincher in 2017. After having a daughter the next year (who visited Shallow alongside Fincher during the Winners at War family visit), the family unfortunately made headlines in 2021 when it was revealed Shallow would be filing for divorce from Fincher, after having obtained a temporary domestic violence restraining order against him.
Even outside of Survivor, Shallow has certainly led a memoir-worthy life, considering the amount that she has done. She came onto the show initially as a boxer, having created a non-profit organization called "Knockouts for Girls," a charity that provides boxing lessons and scholarships for underprivileged girls. She appeared in the movie Into the Blue 2 alongside fellow Survivor: Micronesia finalist Amanda Kimmel. She even has some experience holding the pen, co-authoring Om the Otter, a children's book about mindfulness, in 2020.
I Survived, Now What by Parvati Shallow will be released by Dial Press on a date yet to be announced.
Next, check out our Survivor 44 interview with host and executive producer Jeff Probst.
