SUPERMODEL Olivia Culpo has become one of the leading influencers in the fashion and beauty world since being crowned Miss Universe.
The American beauty pageant titleholder, 32, has created her own fashion line and even gone on to star in films as part of her highly successful career.
Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe on December 19, 2012 when she was 20-years-old.
Her victory saw her become just the eighth American to win the annual international major beauty pageant in 61 attempts – and the country’s first in 15 years.
The beauty queen’s title came off the back of winning the Miss Rhode Island USA competition and Miss USA 2012 that same year.
When Culpo won Miss Universe, she became the first person from Rhode Island to win the competition.
She finished first in a list of 89 contestants, surpassing the previous record of 86 contestants in Miss Universe 2006.
Since being crowned the winner of Miss Universe 2012, Culpo’s career has skyrocketed.
In January 2023 and then again in November of 2023, Culpo returned to Miss Universe to co-host the 2022 and 2023 pageants.
Outside of pageantry, however, the beauty queen has become one of the world’s leading social media personalities and influencers.
She currently boasts 5.5million followers on Instagram, where she frequently posts modelling photos, product advertisements and updates on her personal life to adoring fans.
She also provides links to paid partnerships with Nexxus, Amazon, LTK and her own Montce swim collection in her bio.
After gaining a significant following on social media following her 2012 beauty pageant win, Culpo secured deals with several beauty and fashion brands like L’Oréal, Kipling, and Uberliss.
In 2020, she appeared on the cover of the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue alongside fellow models Jasmine Sanders and Kate Bock.
Culpo has also successfully opened a restaurant with her family in Rhode Island.
Launched in 2017, Union & Main specialises in New England comfort food, local craft beer, wine, spirits and cocktails.
The beauty queen has even found herself a career in acting, having featured in a number of films including American Satan, I Feel Pretty, Reprisal and Clawfoot.
In 2021, Culp played the female lead in romantic drama film Venus as a Boy.
Two years later, she found herself competing in season nine of The Masked Singer as “UFO”, reaching the quarter-finals.
Born on born May 8, 1992 in Cranston, Rhode Island, Culpo attended St. Mary Academy – Bay View and graduated in 2010 with high honors and as a member of the National Honor Society.
She moved onto Boston University to study communications and acting – but did not graduate.
“I decided over the summer that I wanted to work on my acting skills and perform in a pageant,” she told Boston Magazine in 2013.
“I didn’t have any other way of practicing, so I entered the Miss Rhode Island pageant.”
She added: “I would just like to be in a city that has a bigger market for what I would like to do.”
During her school years, Culpo learnt to play the cello in second grade and spent her summers at band camp.
She was accepted into an intensive summer music program at the Brevard Music Center, in North Carolina for two summers and performed with the Boston University Accompanietta.
The beauty pageant also participated in the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, RI Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, Bay View Orchestra and Rhode Island All-State Orchestra.
