Hollywood’s prettiest faces! The stars who have competed in beauty pageants

It’s no secret that Hollywood is home to some of the most beautiful women in the world, and a number of stars landed their big breaks by being crowned a beauty queen. From Sharon Stone to Katy Perry, here are 10 famous faces who have taken part in beauty pageants...

Best known as Gabrielle Solis on ‘Desperate Housewives’, Eva Longoria did not only compete in a beauty pageant, but won it! The film and TV star was crowned Miss Corpus Christi, back in 1998.

In 2021, model and actress Michelle Pfeiffer posted a throwback clip on her Instagram account, where she appears while competing in the Miss Orange County pageant. In the video, which went immediately viral, the ‘Dangerous Minds’ star wrote, “Hey, we all gotta start somewhere”, along with a Tears of Joy emoji, as well as a crown one.

You probably know Vanessa Lachey for hosting Netflix’s reality show ‘Love is Blind’, or for being singer Nick Lachey’s wife. However, her career started way before the streaming platform was launched, specifically in 1998 when she was the winner of Miss Teen Usa.

Known all over the globe for bringing superhero Wonder Woman to life on the big screen, but in 2004 Gal Gadot competed in the Miss Israel contest, and she took the title.

The ‘Swish Swish’ hitmaker also tried her hand at beauty pageants when her mother sent her to competitions as a little girl. She took second place on her very first attempt at a local grocery store before taking on a “real pageant” in Arizona. Katy recalled: “To tell the truth… my mom entered me in one or two of these things. The first one was just at your local grocery store. I got 2nd place. It wasn't a hard race, just between a couple of other girls in the grocery store and then I faintly remember doing a REAL pageant when we lived in Lake Havasu, (Arizona) and I competed and got 2nd place. 2ND PLACE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH…”

The Oscar-winning actress entered several beauty pageants throughout the 1980s and won Miss Teen All American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986. In 1989, she moved to New York to pursue a modelling career and was shortly cast in the short-lived series ‘Living Dolls’. Two years later, Berry landed her film debut in Spike Lee’s ‘Jungle Fever’ and became one of the highest-paid actresses in the world during the 2000s.

The talk show host was crowned Miss Black Tennessee at 17 years old. Shortly after, Oprah hung up her tiara and started her career as the youngest and first black news anchor at Nashville's WLAC-TV. She went on to host ‘AM Chicago’ in 1983, which later became ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ when she helped it become the highest-rated show on the network.

The ‘Baywatch’ star was crowned Miss India in 2000 and went on to win the Miss World title later that year. She said that winning the two titles earned her recognition and she was soon landing auditions for film roles. Chopra Jonas landed her first film role in ‘Thamizhan’ in 2002 and earned her breakout role in the 2004 thriller ‘Aitraaz’.

The ‘Basic Instinct’ star took home the crown at the Miss Crawford County, Pennsylvania pageant and took part in the Miss Pennsylvania competition. During her time in the contest, a pageant judge told her to quit school and move to New York City to become a fashion model. Stone eventually left school and moved to New Jersey before she was signed to a modeling agency and later pursued acting.

In a 2021 Instagram post, the ‘How To Lose a Guy in 10 Day’s star posted an adorable throwback picture, where he appears at a very young age holding a prize. The image read: “For 43 years I was Little Mr. Texas... until I wasn't."