The Most Successful America's Next Top Model Contestants Ever

Lisa D'Amato first competed on Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model. She was known at the time for being incredibly outspoken, as well as for her tendency to start drama with the other models. In 2011, she appeared on — and won — the All-Star Cycle. Since her time on the show, D'Amato has kept herself busy doing a pretty wide range of things, including appearing on several reality TV shows.

In 2010, she checked into Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and, two years later, she starred in a reality show pilot called My Name Is Lisa. In 2016, D'Amato and her husband, Hollywood entrepreneur Adam Friedman, appeared on WEtv's Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars, and, in March 2019, Reality Blurred reported that she landed a deal on Shark Tank for her food storage bib Dare-U-Go!

But D'Amato's true passion lies with music. In 2009, she released her debut album, La Puchinetta, which she followed up with Flippin' the Bird. She said during her reality show pilot, "My music is the true outlet for expressing who I am."

Cassandra Jean Whitehead competed on Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model, where she famously dropped out of the series after she received a hair makeover that was "the last straw in them completely trying to change who [she] was." The haircut itself wasn't actually bad, but it was enough to make her the first model to ever quit the show.

Whitehead went on to television work, where she had several small screen appearances, most notably on One Tree Hill, Mad Men, and Arrow. Where the former model really lucked out, though, is in love. In December 2012, she married Arrow star Stephen Amell in a private ceremony in the Caribbean. Then, when the pair came back to the States, Us Weekly reported they married a second time the following May in front of friends and family in New Orleans. The couple welcomed their first child that October, and they've been even more in love with each other every day since.

Eva Marcille started her modeling career by winning the third cycle of America's Next Top Model (and taking the title over Yaya DaCosta). After the show, Marcille had a pretty fruitful career on TV, with roles in Smallville, The Young and the Restless, and House of Payne. Between 2013 and 2015, she appeared on the reality TV series Real Husbands of Hollywood, but it wasn't until 2018 that she fully embraced the reality TV lifestyle with The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

But the model and actress isn't only interested in making a living on camera. In 2018, she launched her home design collection, which emphasizes fashionable pieces at an affordable price point. Marcille told People she had always wanted to be involved in interior design, saying, "My goal is to give women an oasis with warm patterns and comfortable fabrics, for an easy getaway from life. Enhancing your living space is therapeutic, and our prints make for a calming environment."

Nyle DiMarco was the first deaf model to win America's Next Top Model , taking the title of the show's 22nd cycle. When he appeared on the series, he talked about how his deafness was actually an advantage, saying, "Being deaf has definitely been a strength to me in this competition, just because American sign language requires a lot of facial expression and using your body, and that's what modeling requires also." He had actually done some modeling and television work prior to being cast on ANTM, so it's little surprise that he would find such success afterwards.

In 2019, Out reported that DiMarco, who won Dancing With the Stars in 2016, snagged a role on Grey's Anatomy spinoff Station 19 as a deaf firefighter. Besides spearheading the Nyle DiMarco Foundation, which works to "improve the lives of every Deaf person in the world," he also started a production company specifically focused on deaf filmmakers. He told L'Officiel in 2019, "I think Hollywood is finally listening and becoming more aware of the extreme lack of representation, but there is a lot of work still to do."

Leila Goldkuhl's appearance on the 19th cycle of America's Next Top Model had its ups and downs. After being eliminated during the fifth week, Goldkuhl wound up winning a second chance to be in the competition via a social media vote. Once back on the show, she nearly won the season, landing in third place. 

After the series, Goldkuhl went on to work in high fashion. In 2016, she made her runway debut at Givenchy's spring show in New York. According to Vogue, Riccardo Tisci — then a creative director for Givenchy — liked her look so much that he planned to use her for the brand's followup campaign. In 2017, Goldkuhl walked for a number of designers at Fashion Week, including Chanel, Nina Ricci, and Tom Ford. And by 2018, she was recognized as one of the 50 best models in the world. Pretty impressive.

Even though Bre Scullark made it all the way to third place on Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model, she wound up being remembered more for her feud with that season's winner, Nicole Linkletter, than for anything else. Luckily, Scullark would bounce back from "Granola Gate," shifting from a modeling career to a life focused on balance and community — but it took some hard hits to get there.

In an interview with Office Magazine, Scullark recounted the period after ANTM ended, during which she went from making $200,000 on one particular day to being dropped by her agencies after a bad haircut. Hard drug use led to a stint in rehab, after which the model discovered yoga. Noticing a lack of yoga in urban areas, Scullark took it upon herself to set up her own "pay what you can" community classes. Eventually, she began teaching in prisons, a thing she said is more fulfilling than her previous work. "I feel healed and needed," she told Office Magazine. "I always felt disposable modeling. There was no real need for me."

Somali-born model Fatima Siad competed on Cycle 10 of America's Next Top Model, coming in third place in the overall competition. Although she wasn't one of the more well-liked contestants on the show at the time of her elimination, Siad said the fights between her and the other girls were "dramatized" for TV. "It was ridiculous," she said in her final interview, but she also admitted to being "very blunt."

In 2011, Siad accomplished an ANTM first by landing spots on runways for Dries Van Noten and Hermès, according to The Cut. The transition into high fashion came after a three-year period of commercial and print work. She later graced the pages of Nylon magazine and was included in Urban Decay's fall/winter 2016 ad campaign. 

So, what's her best advice for models? She told New York Magazine (via Daily Mail), "Now that I work as a professional model, I advise people to stay away from any television shows. It's a waste of your time; it's just entertainment. It's not the fashion that we now know."

Ebonee Davis was a working model before coming in fifth place on Cycle 18 of America's Next Top Model. In a 2012 interview with Seattle Met, Davis revealed she felt her preparedness would set her up for success post-ANTM – unlike many of the aspiring models who go on the show hoping to land their first modeling gig.

"They don't see that the experience of the show isn't correlated to the real world of fashion modeling," Davis said of her fellow ANTM contestants. She continued, "I was modeling before the show, I already had career before I went on the show."

Since being catapulted to fame, Davis has found success, modeling for brands like Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret. She's also used her platform to speak out about societal issues, including diversity within the fashion industry. "As artists in the fashion industry, we are the embodiment of free speech," Davis wrote in an open letter published in Harper's Bazaar in 2016. She continued, writing, "It is no longer acceptable for us to revel in black culture with no regard for the struggles facing the black community."

Don Benjamin might not have been crowned the winner of America's Next Top Model: Guys & Girls, but he definitely made an impact on the show's fandom with his modeling prowess, numerous tattoos, and piercing green eyes. 

In an interview with Inked, Benjamin explained that he didn't expect much to come from his ANTM audition. "At that moment, I was pursuing music heavily," Benjamin revealed. "I didn't have much going on, so I figured I would give it a try, not realizing it would be the break I needed." When asked about his post-ANTM career, Benjamin said his life "changed drastically after the show." He continued, telling the publication, "I can do what I want now entertainment wise and I have a better platform to chase my dreams."

Speaking with Hunger in 2017, Benjamin revealed his most exciting campaign — a campaign with GUESS. "A few years ago I was without a job looking for work and applied at [GUESS] and didn't get the job," the model shared. He continued, "Fast forward to today and I'm one of their main male models." What a glow-up!

Raina Hein was largely seen as the frontrunner during her run on Cycle 14 of America's Next Top Model. However, the aspiring model ultimately walked away from the show as runner-up to Cycle 14 winner Krista White. Still, Hein experienced her fair share of success post-ANTM, modeling for numerous campaigns, appearing in various televised advertisements, and walking runways.

In a 2014 interview with FCM Style, Hein described her hectic schedule as a working model. "I was just in Barcelona for a week shooting the campaign for Tarik Ediz, and was in Monaco and London two weeks ago for a meeting with a magazine," Hein told the publication. 

However, it seems as though Hein is finding success elsewhere these days. Just one look at her Instagram will tell you all you need to know about the model's priorities, as nearly every post is a cute photo of her growing family. In 2019, Hein took to the social media platform to announce that she and her husband, Rhett Ellison, has welcomed their second child.