Lisa Whelchel was born in Littlefield, Texas, USA. She is the daughter of James "Jimmy" and Virginia "Genny" Whelchel. Her parents divorced in 1981, as she was in her upper teens, then her mother married Roy Coleman in 1983. Whelchel is the eldest sister of James (Cody) Whelchel and half-brother, Casey Coleman. She was raised for most of her childhood in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She is an American actress, singer-songwriter, author and speaker. Whelchel discovered acting at the age of eight and proceeded to perform in musical theater for the next four years. She became a born-again Christian and devoted her life to her Christian faith at age ten. When Lisa was twelve years old, she wrote to the Disney Studios asking for an audition as a Mouseketeer on The New Mickey Mouse Club (1977). Lisa moved to California the next year and appeared in syndication from 1977-1978. In 1979, she played the leading student role of preppy and wealthiest girl, "Blair Warner" on The Facts of Life (1979). The show lasted nine years and she filmed the last regular episode, The Facts of Life: Big Apple Blues (1988) televised on Saturday, March 19th, 1988. Six & seven weeks later, there were two specials, with larger cast, as it was in progress of closing. Their title links: The Facts of Life: The Beginning of the End (1988), televised on Saturday, April 30th, 1988 & then the series ending finale, The Facts of Life: The Beginning of the Beginning (1988) televised on Saturday, May 7th, 1988. On Saturday, July 9th, 1988, she married Steven Cauble, who was an associate pastor at "The Church On the Way" in Van Nuys, California, where Whelchel attended at the time. She became a mother, after giving birth on Saturday, January 17th, 1990 to a son, Tucker Stephenson Cauble, her first child. She gave birth on Thursday, September 26th, 1991 to a daughter, Haven Katherine Hill Cauble, her second child. Her third child, and second daughter, she named Clancy Elizabeth Cauble (aka Clancy Cauble), was born on Thursday, November 12th, 1992. She released a Christian pop album called "All Because of You" in 1984. The next year, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance. She has written many books including "Creative Correction", "So You're Thinking About Homeschooling", "The Facts of Life (and Other Lessons My Father Taught Me)", "Friendships for Grown-Ups", "Taking Care of the Me in Mommy" and "Speaking Mom-Ese". In 2001, she reprized her role of "Blair Warner" for the made-for-television movie, The Wonderful World of Disney: The Facts of Life Reunion (2001), on the ABC Network. On Sunday, March 7th, 2004, she and Charlotte Rae performed "The Facts of Life" theme song at the 2nd Annual TV Land Awards. On Thursday, April 10th, 2011, Whelchel and the cast of The Facts of Life (1979), including Charlotte Rae, Nancy McKeon, Mindy Cohn, Kim Fields, Geri Jewell & Cloris Leachman were honored with the Pop Culture Award at the 9th Annual TV Land Awards at the Javits Center in New York City. She officially divorced her husband, Steven Cauble, on Thursday, March 1st, 2012, after 23 years of marriage. She appeared on the 25th season of Survivor (2000), located in the Philippine Islands, as part of the Tandang tribe. The first episode aired on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012. She appeared on the CBS talk show, The Talk (2010), to promote her appearance on "Survivor" on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012. Whelchel appeared on "The Jeff Probst Show" (2012) on Monday, October 29th, 2012, on the episode, "Teen Star Lisa Whelchel: Surviving 'Survivor' and Divorce". She also appeared on a second episode titled "Survivor Finalists" along with fellow 'Survivor: Philippines' contestants, Abi-Maria Gomes, Michael Skupin, Denise Stapley and Malcolm Freberg for being in the final five. On Wednesday, December 16th, 2012, during the 25th Season Reunion Show on CBS, "America's Sweetheart" won the fan-voted Sprint Player of the Season by 0.7% over Malcolm which is the closest margin of victory in Survivor history. The prize money that Lisa Whelchel won was $100,000 U.S. Lisa began to co-host on The Jeff Probst Show (2012) with filming, that started televising in January of 2013.