Phil Ferguson

“The world’s premier lonely crochet artist” is how Australian social media and reality TV personality Phil Ferguson describes themselves. After becoming well-known on Instagram for their inventive crochet art creations, Ferguson became the first non-binary contestant to ever appear in a series of Survivor, competing in the sixth season of Australian Survivor during 2021. Unfortunately, despite being popular with the show’s fans, they were the first person to be voted out of the show, giving the Australian public little time to get to know them. They did, however, manage to significantly add to their Instagram follower count (it currently stands at over 138,000) and get that all-important blue-tick status.

Ferguson hails from Melbourne. They began making crochet art back in 2014 as a means of connecting with people around them. The kooky creations they came out with were a wonderfully intriguing representation of their kooky personality and soon got people interested, especially when Ferguson started sharing them on Instagram. Today, they have followers from all over the world — many of whom may have no idea what Australian Survivor is. Their work has been featured by the major likes of The Huffington Post, the BBC, BuzzFeed, and even, in a through-the-mirror moment, Instagram’s official Instagram account.

Among the more recent creations Ferguson has come up with are lots of food-and-drink themed crochets, including a hat shaped like the top of a milkshake carton, a burger hat and scarf, and a cupcake balaclava. With a portfolio like that, it’s genuinely impossible to guess what they might come up with next.