Whatever Happened to Fitness Guru Susan Powter? A New Doc Sheds Light on the Mystery
What To Know
- Susan Powter rose to fame in the 1990s as a fitness guru and motivational speaker, becoming a pop culture icon with her catchphrase “Stop the insanity!” and her high-energy infomercials.
- Her career and fortune collapsed due to bad business deals, lawsuits, and financial mismanagement by associates, leaving her broke and disillusioned with the industry.
- The new documentary Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter explores her dramatic rise and fall, aiming to reintroduce her to a new generation.
In the ’90s, Susan Powter was on top of the world. Known for her trademark platinum blonde buzzcut and boundless enthusiasm for fitness and wellness that she brought to audiences daily through her infomercials, she dominated daytime TV as a motivational speaker, nutritionist, and fitness guru. Her signature rallying cry — “Stop the insanity!” — became a pop-culture catchphrase, urging viewers to reject fad diets and sedentary lifestyles in favor of common-sense health and empowerment.
Once weighing over 250 pounds, Powter transformed her dramatic weight loss into a fitness empire through her high-energy infomercials. With her mix of charisma and conviction, she seemed a natural fit for television. Soon, the fitness queen landed a hefty book advance and her own nationally syndicated talk show, The Susan Powter Show, while also teaming up with a manager and an investment partner to help expand her rapidly growing brand.
But that success would ultimately mark the beginning of the end for Susan Powter.
The documentary Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter — executive produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and directed by Zeberiah Newman — examines the rise and fall of the “original wellness influencer.”
Through bad business deals, lawsuits, and financial mismanagement by her associates, Susan Powter lost the fortune she had accumulated during her 1990s fame. Powter told People magazine in 2024 that her business partner was handling all her money. “I never said, ‘Show me the damn bank balance.’ I should have.” Powter says in the trailer.
So while the company brought in tens of millions of dollars, she claims she never saw much of the money.
According to Powter, the talk show was a “mortifying” experience. “They put me in pearls. Look at me — do I look like the pearl type? And I didn’t have any say. All those segments, I can’t even watch them now.”
Susan Powter at the world premiere of ‘Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter’ during the 11th Annual Bentonville Film Festival (Jason Davis/Getty Images for Bentonville Film Festival)
Powter said her ’90s stardom quickly fell apart due to bad business deals and lawsuits from her inner circle. The experience left her both broke and brokenhearted. “I didn’t just make a decision to leave. My heart got stomped in half,” said Powter to People. “It was shocking. I was furious. And I was just like, I’m just out.”
Cut to the present, where Powter all but disappeared. Now working as an Uber Eats driver in Las Vegas, Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter, as well as her self-published memoir, And Then Em Died… Stop the Insanity! A Memoir, aims to reintroduce Powter to a new generation as it sheds light on the rise, fall, and resilience of a woman who once told the world to “Stop the insanity!”
Curtis describes the film as “an indictment of how we discard human beings as they get older in this country,” as Curtis and Newman hope to give her story the recognition and dignity it deserves.
“It’s a tsunami of truth. And I’m going to blow the roof off this time,” says Powter in the trailer.
Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter comes out in select theaters on November 19, 2025.
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