Winning Miss USA can open doors, but losing the crown clearly does not close them. Over the decades, the Miss USA stage has introduced future actresses, reality TV personalities, models and media figures before much of America knew their names. In several cases, a contestant who watched another woman walk away with the crown eventually became just as recognizable as the titleholder, or considerably more famous.
Halle Berry is the ultimate example. Long before the Oscar, blockbuster movies and Hollywood icon status, Berry stood on the Miss USA stage representing Ohio and came within one placement of winning it all.
© Backgrid/The Grosby GroupShe is far from the only Miss USA contestant whose fame continued growing after pageant night.
Miss USA contestants who became global superstars
Halle Berry Was First Runner-Up at Miss USA 1986
The most famous Miss USA contestant who did not win may be Halle Berry.
Berry won Miss Ohio USA and competed at Miss USA 1986, where she finished first runner-up behind Miss Texas Christy Fichtner. Contemporary coverage confirms Berry was among the finalists when Fichtner captured the title. That result looks very different four decades later.
Berry transitioned from pageants and modeling into acting, ultimately becoming one of Hollywood's most recognizable stars. Her career would include major films such as X-Men, Die Another Day and Monster's Ball.
Her performance in Monster's Ball made her the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.
It is one of pageantry's most fascinating "what happened next?" stories. Berry did not leave Miss USA with the crown, yet her name ultimately became far more internationally recognizable than the title itself.
© PA Images via Getty ImagesKelly Hu Competed Against Kenya Moore at Miss USA 1993
Miss USA 1993 produced an unusually star-filled group of contestants.
Kenya Moore, representing Michigan, won the crown. Moore later found an entirely new audience through acting and reality television, most notably The Real Housewives of Atlanta.
But another future actress was standing onstage that year.
Kelly Hu represented Hawaii and advanced to the Top 6. She also received the Miss Photogenic award.
Hu subsequently built a long acting career, appearing in television and movies and becoming particularly recognizable to action and superhero audiences. Her credits have included The Scorpion King and X2: X-Men United, along with extensive television and voice acting work.
That makes the 1993 competition especially interesting in retrospect. The winner, Moore, became a major reality television personality, while Top 6 contestant Hu established a decades-long Hollywood career.
© WireImageDanni Boatwright Nearly Won Miss USA Before Winning Survivor
Danni Boatwright came extremely close to becoming Miss USA. Representing Kansas, Boatwright finished first runner-up to Louisiana's Ali Landry at Miss USA 1996. Contemporary coverage of the competition confirms Landry won while Boatwright took second place overall.
Boatwright eventually got her nationally televised victory, just on a completely different kind of competition.
In 2005, she competed on Survivor: Guatemala and won the season. She later returned for Survivor: Winners at War, which brought together previous champions from the long-running CBS franchise.
Her career is an especially fun pageant-to-reality-TV crossover. Boatwright went from almost winning one of America's most famous beauty competitions to actually winning one of television's biggest reality competitions.
© CBS via Getty ImagesHannah Brown Turned Miss Alabama USA Into Reality TV Fame
Hannah Brown never reached the Miss USA finals, but that hardly mattered to her eventual celebrity profile. Brown was Miss Alabama USA 2018 before moving into reality television. She competed on season 23 of The Bachelor and was subsequently chosen as the star of season 15 of The Bachelorette. She then won season 28 of Dancing with the Stars. ABC also identifies Brown as a two-time New York Times bestselling author.
Miss USA 2018 was won by Sarah Rose Summers of Nebraska, but Brown became one of the year's most recognizable contestants outside the pageant world.
Her career also demonstrates how dramatically the celebrity pipeline surrounding pageants has changed. Previous generations often moved from pageantry into modeling, acting or broadcasting. Brown's trajectory went directly through reality television, social media, publishing and lifestyle entertainment.
© GC ImagesCaelynn Miller-Keyes Was First Runner-Up at Miss USA 2018
Hannah Brown was not the only future Bachelor Nation personality competing at Miss USA 2018.
Caelynn Miller-Keyes represented North Carolina and came much closer to the crown, finishing first runner-up behind Sarah Rose Summers. She later appeared on The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, building a public profile that extended well beyond pageantry.
Brown and Miller-Keyes both participated in the same Miss USA competition before entering the Bachelor franchise, giving Miss USA 2018 an unexpected place in reality TV history.
© Getty ImagesCandice Crawford Made the Top 10 at Miss USA 2008
Candice Crawford represented Missouri at Miss USA 2008 and reached the Top 10. The Missouri pageant's official Hall of Fame lists Crawford as Miss Missouri USA 2008 and confirms her Top 10 national finish.
Crystle Stewart of Texas ultimately won Miss USA that year.
Crawford remained a recognizable entertainment and sports-world figure after pageantry. She is the sister of Gossip Girl actor Chace Crawford and later married former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
Although Crawford did not pursue the same type of Hollywood career as Berry or Hu, her post-pageant public profile made her one of the better-known contestants from the 2008 class.
© WireImageJennifer Gareis Went From Miss USA Finalist to Soap Star
Another future actress appeared at Miss USA 1994.
Jennifer Gareis represented New York and reached the Top 6 before Lu Parker of South Carolina won the title.
Gareis subsequently established herself in daytime television. She became known for playing Grace Turner on The Young and the Restless and Donna Logan on The Bold and the Beautiful.
Decades after her pageant appearance, Gareis even received a 2024 Daytime Emmy nomination for her work on The Bold and the Beautiful.
© CBS via Getty Images
