Terry Fossum is an American actor and businessperson. He is best known as the winner of the 2017

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series '' Kicking and Screaming''. Fossum is an author and does business training and speaking engagements.

Biography

Fossum was born in

Mission, Texas Mission is a city in Hidalgo County, in the US state of Texas, United States. The population was 85,778 at the 2020 census and an estimated 86,635 in 2022. Mission is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan ...

but raised in

McAllen, Texas McAllen is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Hidalgo County. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexican border. The city limits extend south to the Rio Grande, acros ...

as one of three brothers, during which time he joined the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

, where he became an Eagle Scout. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

while serving in the Corps of Cadets, following which Fossum became an officer in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

. He also became the Officer of the Year for the

Fairchild Air Force Base Fairchild Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force base, located in the northwest United States in eastern Washington, approximately southwest of Spokane. The host unit at Fairchild is the 92nd Air Refueling Wing (92 ARW) assigned ...

and was the Executive Officer for a Group of Nuclear B-52 Bombers. After the Air Force Fossum founded sales company and the ''Terry L. Fossum Learning Center'' in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. he also started the ''Terry L. Fossum Scholarships for Underprivileged Youth'' in McAllen, Texas; providing agricultural training for

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, Africa in 2018.

Television

In 2017, Fossum appeared on Fox reality television series '' Kicking and Screaming'', a show that paired survival experts with “wilderness impaired partners”. He and his partner Natalie Casanova won the competition, splitting the $500,000 grand prize. This then led to several million dollars in donations for the Scouts following the series airing. Fossum was also the producer for the film Tiger Lily Is My Little Sister, in which he also acted, and the film Role Prey. Both films centered on the problem of human trafficking. In 2021, Fossum received the ''Best Supporting Actor and Fan Favorite'' award at the Christian Film Festival for his role in the movie ''Agape''. Also in 2021, Fossum published a self-help book titled ''The Oxcart Technique: Blueprint for Success''. Fossum has continued to be involved in the Boy Scouts of America, first as a scoutmaster, and eventually as the vice president for programs for the Washington State's Inland Northwest Council. Fossum was married before but then divorced. Today he is married to a woman who has three sons, whose scoutmaster he became.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fossum, Terry Living people Texas A&M University alumni Participants in American reality television series People from Mission, Texas United States Air Force officers Film producers from Texas Male actors from Texas Year of birth missing (living people) Reality show winners Military personnel from Texas