Miss USA has been a staple in American culture since 1952, and a number of celebrities have competed in the annual competition over the years.
This year’s winner will be crowned on Saturday, Aug. 4 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles by reigning titleholder Savannah Gankiewicz. Gankiewicz, who represented Hawaii, was announced as the winner earlier this year after former titleholder Noelia Voigt shockingly stepped down, part of a wave of resignations.
At the time, Voigt cited her mental health as the reason behind her resignation, while both Voigt’s mom, and the mom of former Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava, subsequently claimed their daughters had been “abused, bullied and cornered.” (Miss USA President and CEO] Laylah Rose has denied the allegations, while Voigt asked that her non-disclosure agreement be waived so she can speak freely about her experience.)
When she accepted the crown, Gankiewicz stressed that “my decision to accept the Miss USA crown was not one that was made lightly.”
“I stand with Noelia and admire her strength,” she added in a statement. “Noelia, it was the honor of a lifetime to share the stage with you during your crowning moment and I wish you all the best in your next chapter.”
Before this year’s winner is crowned, here’s a look back at some of the most famous Miss USA contestants, from Halle Berry to Olivia Culpo.
Halle Berry
Halle Berry during the 1986 Miss USA pageant (left) and in December 2021.
AP Photo; Todd Williamson/E! Entertainment/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1966, Halle Berry entered the beauty pageant circuit as a teen, winning the Miss Teen All American pageant in 1985 before being crowned Miss Ohio USA the following year.
“Once you start winning these things it’s like a snowball. And you have to go to the next one and if you when there you go to the next one, and I kept winning all the way until the Miss USA pageant where I did not win,” Berry said of her pageant journey during a 2016 interview with W Magazine.
She ended up finishing as first runner-up behind Miss Texas Christy Fichtner in the 1986 Miss USA pageant,
“That ended my beauty pageant career,” Berry told W Magazine.
As for her talent, she quipped, “I had no talent.”
“We didn’t have to have the talent. [In] Miss America you need a talent. Miss USA you’re talentless. You just show up,” she said. “Thank God I didn’t have to sing.”
Berry then began her career as an actress, starring in films like Catwoman, Die Another Day, Cloud Atlas and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Her most recent film, Moonfall, was released in 2022, but she will appear in the upcoming film The Union, which will premiere on Netflix Aug. 16.
Kenya Moore
Kenya Moore during the 1993 Miss USA pageant (left) and in 2024.
Ron Galella Collection via Getty; Derek White/Getty
Kenya Moore entered the pageant scene at age 22, after beginning her modeling career at age 14. In 1993, Moore was crowned Miss Michigan USA and became the second Black woman to win Miss USA later that year. (Carole Anne-Marie Gist was the first Black Miss USA, earning her crown in 1990.)
“Being Miss USA… being the second [Black] woman to be crowned Miss USA. I’m a part of American history,” Moore, now 53, told Entertainment Tonight earlier this year.
“A little young Black girl from Detroit, having come from really nothing to being a celebrity overnight and touching people and having people be excited to see you in person and crying over you, that was a lot,” she added. “It was a lot to deal with, but I just remember it was the best time of my life.”
She went on to place in the top six for the 1993 Miss Universe pageant, which was won by Dayanara Torres of Puerto Rico.
Moore then began her acting career, diving into roles in films and television series like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Waiting to Exhale, Deliver Us From Eva and I Know Who Killed Me.
Moore entered the reality television sphere in 2012, when she joined the Season 5 cast of The Real Housewives of Atlanta on Bravo. From there, she appeared on Season 7 of The Celebrity Apprentice and competed in Season 30 of Dancing with the Stars in 2021.
In June, it was announced that Moore would not be returning to RHOA after she was suspended from the set indefinitely for allegedly leaking explicit pictures of new cast member Brittany Eady.
Shanna Moakler
Shanna Moakler during Miss USA 1995 (left) and in 2024.
Shanna Moakler/Instagram; Bryan Steffy/Getty
Shanna Moakler was crowned Miss New York in 1995, and finished as a runner-up to Chelsi Smith in the Miss USA pageant that year. However, after Smith was crowned Miss Universe, Moakler succeeded her as Miss USA.
She began her acting career in 1996, appearing on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Due South, before becoming a regular on the drama series Pacific Blue in 1998. She later starred in a reality series called Meet the Barkers alongside her then-husband Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink-182, in 2005.
Moakler and Barker, who share two children, divorced in 2008. She also shares a daughter with boxer Oscar De La Hoya.
In a June interview with PEOPLE, Moakler, opening up about her life, said, “I’m more than just the ex-wife of famous men.”
“I was Miss USA at 19. I’m smart. Every part I’ve ever got in any movie, or every show I hosted or auditioned for, I worked… to get,” she said. “I’m proud of who I am.”
Ali Landry
Ali Landry.
MISS UNIVERSE/ho/AFP via Getty; River Callaway/Variety via Getty
Ali Landry first made her way into the pageant world in 1990 when she took the title of Miss Louisiana Teen USA, before later winning the crown for Miss Louisiana USA in 1996. That same year she took the Miss USA crown and ended up finishing in the top six for the Miss Universe competition.
Following her pageantry career, Landry began modeling and acting on television, appearing in a number of Doritos Super Bowl ads from 1998 to 2000. She also hosted the NBC reality series SpyTV and appeared in the series Eve.
In 1998, she was named one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by PEOPLE, and she has been listed as one of FHM magazine’s 100 Sexiest Women in the World list multiple times.
Vanessa Lachey
Vanessa Minnillo after being crowned Miss Teen USA 1998 (left) and in April 2022.
AP Photo/Miss Universe Organization; Jon Kopaloff/Getty
Although she never competed in Miss USA, Vanessa Lachey, formerly Vanessa Minnillo, did enter the 1998 Miss Teen USA pageant as a representative of South Carolina — and won.
From there, she became a television host and correspondent, hosting MTV’s The Morning After and Total Request Live as well as reporting for Entertainment Tonight. Her acting career kicked off with a series of small roles in series like 30 Rock, Psych, Hawaii Five-O and How I Met Your Mother.
She met her husband, singer Nick Lachey, while shooting a music video for his song “What’s Left of Me” in 2006 and the couple married in 2011. On Season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, the two competed against each other, with Vanessa being eliminated seventh, a week after her husband was eliminated.
The Lacheys began hosting the Netflix series Love is Blind in 2020, and have hosted every episode of the series since.
In 2021, Vanessa was cast in the lead role of Jane Tennant in NCIS: Hawai’i, becoming the first female lead in the history of the franchise. The series was canceled by CBS in April.
Olivia Culpo
Olivia Culpo during the 2012 Miss USA post-pageant press conference (left) and in 2023.
Michael Stewart/FilmMagic; Emma McIntyre/Getty
After becoming Miss Rhode Island in her first-ever pageant, Olivia Culpo won the Miss USA pageant in 2012 before securing the title of Miss Universe that same year. Following her Miss Universe win, Culpo became a social media personality and kickstarted her career.
Culpo appeared in the films The Other Woman in 2014 and 2018’s I Feel Pretty, as well as the television series Model Squad and Paradise City, in addition to appearing as a judge and a backstage correspondent for 2015 and 2019’s Miss Universe pageants. She later would host the Miss Universe pageants in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
In 2023, Culpo competed on Season 9 of The Masked Singer as “UFO”, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Culpo started dating NFL star Christian McCaffrey in 2019. In June 2024, they tied the knot in Culpo’s home state of Rhode Island.
Hannah Brown
Hannah Brown during the 2018 Miss USA pageant (left) and in 2022.
Wikimedia; Emma McIntyre/Getty
Hannah Brown competed in the Miss Alabama pageant several times before being crowned the title in 2018. The Tuscaloosa native represented her home state during that year’s Miss USA competition, where she would meet her eventual The Bachelor co-star Caelynn Miller-Keyes.
“It is a huge responsibility to do this, and represent the state of Alabama and everything I stand for,” she said during an interview with Alabama News Center at the time.
Brown did not place in the competition but was cast in Season 23 of The Bachelor the same year, vying for the affection of Colton Underwood. She placed seventh in the season, but was announced as the lead for Season 15 of The Bachelorette.
In her season finale of The Bachelorette, Brown chose Jed Wyatt as her fiancée, but they broke up after filming.
Brown then competed as a contestant on Season 28 of Dancing with the Stars in 2019, winning the season alongside partner Alan Bersten.
In 2021, Brown began her career as an author with the release of her memoir God Bless This Mess: Learning to Live and Love Through Life’s Best (and Worst) Moments, which debuted at number 13 on The New York Times best-seller list. That same year she began dating Adam Woolard, and they got engaged in 2023.
Brown’s first romance novel Mistakes We Never Made published in May 2024, and she has another book scheduled to release next summer.
She is currently engaged to Adam Woolard.
Caelynn Miller-Keyes
Caelynn Miller-Keyes during the 2018 Miss USA competition (left) and in April 2024.
FOX Image Collection via Getty; Kevin Mazur/Getty
Caelynn Miller-Keyes also competed in 2018’s Miss USA pageant as Miss North Carolina alongside Brown, finishing as the first runner-up to winner Sarah Rose Summers, who represented Nebraska.
In 2019, she competed in Season 23 of The Bachelor, finishing in fourth place. Later that year, Miller-Keyes appeared on Bachelor in Paradise, before leaving shortly after along with boyfriend Dean Unglert, whom she started dating on the show.
In 2023, Miller-Keyes and Unglert married in Meredith, Colorado, close to where Unglert grew up.
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Publish date : 2024-08-02 09:44:00
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