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Before she won an Academy Award, Halle Berry was nearly Miss USA.

The iconic actor is among a star-studded group of women who used the 74-year-old pageant as their stepping stone to Hollywood.

These are the celebrities who have competed at Miss USA.

Halle Berry nearly won Miss USA in 1986.

Berry represented Ohio at Miss USA in 1986. She was first runner-up to Miss Texas, Christy Fichtner, who was the first runner-up at Miss Universe. If Fichtner had won, Berry would have inherited the Miss USA crown. 

That same year, Berry was the first African-American woman to represent the USA at the Miss World competition. She finished in sixth place. 

While Berry didn't take home the Miss USA or Miss World crowns, she continued to make history in Hollywood. In 1999, Berry took on the title role in "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," a biopic about the first Black woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for best actress. Berry won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her performance. 

Three years later, Berry became the first Black woman to win the Oscar for best actress. She took home the trophy for her role in the 2001 film "Monster's Ball."  

In 1993, Kenya Moore became the second Black woman to win the Miss USA crown.

Moore took home the Miss USA crown while representing Michigan in 1993. She placed in the top six at Miss Universe. 

Moore's pageant success kicked off a Hollywood acting career that included stints on TV shows like "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "Living Single," and "Girlfriends," and films including "Waiting to Exhale" and "Deliver Us from Eva." She also appeared in music videos for Nas and Tupac. 

Moore went on to become a Bravo star, appearing on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" from 2012 to 2024. She has also appeared as a contestant on "The Apprentice," "Dancing With the Stars," and "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test." 

Moore will host the 75th annual Miss USA finals on August 27.

Shanna Moakler was first runner-up at Miss USA in 1995, but she inherited the crown after her competitor won Miss Universe.

Moakler represented New York at Miss USA 1995. She was first runner-up to Miss Texas Chelsi Smith, but assumed the title of Miss USA after Smith won Miss Universe. 

After her pageant career came to an end, Moakler appeared on shows including "Pacific Blue" and "Entourage." She was married to Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker for four years, briefly starring in the E! reality show "Meet the Barkers." The couple, who divorced in 2008, share two children.

Moakler has appeared as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars" and "Celebrity Big Brother." She also remains active in the Miss USA organization, serving as the executive director for both the Miss Utah USA and Miss Nevada USA state pageants.

Ali Landry was crowned Miss USA in 1996.

Landry took home the pageant's top prize in 1996 while representing Louisiana, and she went on to place in the top six at the Miss Universe pageant that same year.

She transferred her pageant success into a career in entertainment. Her biggest role was as Rita Lefleur on UPN's "Eve," which she appeared in from 2003 to 2006, according to her IMDb page. She most recently appeared in the controversial 2023 film "Sound of Freedom."

Olivia Culpo became the first Miss USA to win the Miss Universe pageant in 15 years when she took the crown in 2012.

After winning Miss USA and Miss Universe, the Rhode Island native amassed a huge social media following and established a career as an influencer. She has over 5 million followers on Instagram.

Culpo dipped her toe into acting after her streak of pageant wins, appearing in "I Feel Pretty" with Amy Schumer and "The Other Woman" with Cameron Diaz. She also starred in one season of the TLC reality series "The Culpo Sisters" with her family. She also co-hosted the Miss Universe pageant in 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

She is married to San Francisco 49ers player Christian McCaffrey and is currently pregnant with their second child.

Hannah Brown competed in the 2018 Miss USA pageant as Miss Alabama.

Brown did not place at the Miss USA pageant but went on to compete on season 23 of "The Bachelor" with Colton Underwood that same year. She placed seventh and was named the next star of "The Bachelorette" in 2019.

Brown gave her final rose to Jed Wyatt and accepted his proposal at the end of the series, but their engagement ended a few months later after she found out he was dating someone else up until the day he left to film the show.

Following "The Bachelorette," Brown competed on and won season 28 of "Dancing With the Stars."

In 2021, Brown published a memoir, "God Bless This Mess," which became a New York Times bestseller. She married entrepreneur Adam Woolard in 2025.

Caelynn Miller-Keyes was first runner-up at the Miss USA 2018 pageant.

Miller-Keyes represented North Carolina in the 2018 Miss USA pageant. 

Like Brown, Miller-Keyes went on to compete for Colton Underwood's heart in season 23 of "The Bachelor," placing fourth.

She appeared on the spin-off series "Bachelor in Paradise" in 2019, where she met Dean Unglert. The couple wed in September 2023.

Today, Miller-Keyes is an influencer with over 1 million Instagram followers. 

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Anneta Konstantinides

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Anneta Konstantinides is a lifestyle correspondent at Business Insider, with a focus on food and travel. She loves taking readers inside Michelin-starred kitchens and exploring the world of fine-dining, and she's always trying to find the best Ina Garten and Gordon Ramsay recipes. Her second home is LAX, where she's often catching a flight and reviewing airlines.Anneta has also been reporting on the pageant industry for the last six years and has interviewed every Miss USA and Miss Universe winner since 2019. She was a finalist at the LA Press Club Awards for her investigation into the  2022 Miss USA scandal and was featured in The New York Times Presents episode "How to Fix a Pageant" on Hulu in September 2023. After graduating from UCLA with a B.A in English Literature and a minor in film & television, Anneta worked as a journalist in London, Sydney, New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. You can reach Anneta at [email protected]. 

Samantha Grindell Pettyjohn is a Senior Lifestyle Reporter at Business Insider with more than eight years of experience in the lifestyle space.At Business Insider, Samantha's coverage focuses on unique living situations, interior design, celebrity style, and books. Her work includes features on multigenerational living and one-of-a-kind houses, timely articles on celebrity fashion, live coverage of award shows and pageants, and fun pieces about popular book series. Samantha also loves reporting on celebrities on her beats, from HGTV stars Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa to authors such as Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros.Samantha appeared on Scripps News and CBS in 2022 to discuss the royal family, and in 2023, she won an Anthem Award for her work on Business Insider's package "Better Me."Samantha received her B.A. in English from Birmingham-Southern College in 2017, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She later earned her M.S. in Publishing from New York University in 2019. Samantha was previously a staff writer at Romper, and her writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Mic, and Oprah.com. Today, Samantha lives in Atlanta with her husband and dog.Email her at [email protected] and follow her on X.