Candice Dontrelle Stewart (born September 19, 1983) is an American television personality and beauty pageant titleholder from Metairie,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. She competed in the

Miss Teen USA Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant that has been run since 1983 by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19 years old as of January 1st of the competition year. They must be US citizens, and cannot have been married, pregnant, or ...

and

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020. ...

pageants. In addition to her pageantry career, she participated as a HouseGuest on the 15th season of the American reality show ''

Big Brother Big Brother may refer to: * a brother senior in birth order Literature * Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' * ''Big Brother'' (magazine), a skateboarding culture magazine * ' ...

''. While in the ''Big Brother'' house, Stewart received national attention after becoming a victim of

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

from fellow HouseGuests Aaryn Williams and GinaMarie Zimmerman. She became the first member of the ''Big Brother'' jury house that season.

Pageant career

She captured the

Miss Louisiana Teen USA The Miss Louisiana Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss Teen USA pageant. Louisiana is in the top 10 most successful states at Miss Teen USA in terms of number and value of ...

2002 crown in the state pageant held in Lafayette in late 2001. Stewart then represented

at the 2002 pageant held at

South Padre Island South Padre Island is a barrier island in the U.S. state of Texas. The remote landform is located in Cameron County, Willacy County, and accessible by the Queen Isabella Causeway. South Padre Island was formed when the creation of the Port Ma ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in August 2002. The pageant was won by

Vanessa Semrow Vanessa Marie Semrow (born November 17, 1984) is an American model and beauty queen who won Miss Teen USA 2002. Personal life Semrow was born as Vanessa Marie Semrow in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Her mother is Thai, her father American. Pageantry S ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. In 2003, just a year after passing on her Teen crown, Stewart returned to the Louisiana pageant stage, placing first runner-up to Melissa McConnell in the

Miss Louisiana USA The Miss Louisiana USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss USA pageant. Miss Louisiana USA is produced by RPM Productions since 1990, which also produces the Miss USA and Miss Teen ...

2004 pageant. She won the pageant the following year, on her second attempt, and was the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

woman to win this title. In April 2005, Stewart competed in the

Miss USA 2005 Miss USA 2005 was the 54th Miss USA pageant, held in Baltimore, Maryland on April 11, 2005. It was won by Chelsea Cooley of North Carolina. Fifty-one state titleholders competed for the title of Miss USA in the Hippodrome Theatre on April 11, ...

pageant televised live from

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. The pageant was won by

Chelsea Cooley Chelsea Scott Cooley Altman (born October 30, 1983) is an American actress, singer, model and beauty pageant titleholder who has competed in the Miss Teen USA, Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants and who has held the Miss USA 2005 title. As ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, who had been

Miss North Carolina Teen USA The Miss North Carolina Teen USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of North Carolina in the Miss Teen USA pageant and is part of the RPM Productions group. North Carolina has been moderately successful ...

2000. Stewart was a

speech pathology Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

major at

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...

and was once a

dancer Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

for the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

. She was due to give up her crown in November 2005, but the aftermath of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

in her state meant the pageant was postponed until January 2006. Her successor was Christina Cuenca of Arabi, who had placed in both years Stewart had competed.

Appearance on ''Big Brother ''

In 2013, Stewart was selected to appear on the American

reality television series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

'' Big Brother 15'' as a contestant (HouseGuest). On Day 5, McCrae nominated Candice and Jessie for eviction, feeling as though they were the least-liked people in the house. However, McCrae used the Power of Veto to remove Candice from the block, and chose to nominate Elissa in her place. Aaryn choose Candice along with Andy, Elissa, and Helen to be the Have-Nots for the second week. She once again became one of the Have-Nots during week four and five. During week five, Stewart was selected to compete for the Power of Veto competition; however, Spencer won the Power of Veto. On Day 39, Spencer used the Power of Veto to remove himself from the block, with Candice being nominated in his place in an attempt to ensure Howard's eviction. Jessie and Candice, believing that Amanda and McCrae were in control of the game, attempted to get the votes to evict Amanda from the house, though this plan failed. As a result, Candice and Jessie became outcasts in the house, and became the targets for several HouseGuests. During week six, Candice won a $5,000 prize. GinaMarie and her allies decided to target Candice and Jessie for eviction, hoping to see Candice be evicted from the house. On Day 43, GinaMarie chose to nominate Candice and Jessie for eviction. Candice lost the Veto competition and had to wear a "Clownitard" for a week. They also learned that this season would feature nine Jury members, rather than seven. Candice then became the sixth HouseGuest to be evicted when she received seven eviction votes (7–0–0). She became the first member of the Jury of Nine. During her time in the house, Stewart formed a friendship with Howard Overby. Because of their racial background, she and Overby were the targets of racist comments from fellow HouseGuests, particularly Aaryn Gries and GinaMarie Zimmerman. At one point, Gries said, “Be careful what you say in the dark; you might not be able to see that bitch." Later in the season, during a Veto Competition (where nominees compete for the "Power of Veto", and the holder can decide whether to change the nominations), Stewart got into a dispute with HouseGuest Amanda Zuckerman. Stewart whispered to HouseGuest Judd Daugherty, "They uckerman and her alliance membersthink you're the MVP." Zuckerman caught this and started taunting Stewart, calling her "Shaniqua". This was followed by, "Oh, am I racist now? I'm racist now!" In a double eviction on Day 49, Stewart was evicted from the house, placing 11th. During her eviction speech, she stated that "this week, the game got personal" and called out fellow HouseGuest GinaMarie for "saying defamatory comments", which sparked an argument. HouseGuest Spencer Clawson then started his eviction speech in an attempt to settle the two women down after Big Brother host Julie Chen failed to assuage the dispute. After her eviction, Stewart became the first member of the Jury, meaning she was able to influence the game through voting for the winner.

Personal life

In 2006, Stewart earned a bachelor's degree in speech-language pathology and audiology from Xavier University of Louisiana. Previously, she was a cheerleader for the

References

Sources

Xavierite wins Miss Louisiana USA
Xavier Herald Online, 11 November 2004 (accessed 8 May 2006)
Xavier senior wins 'Miss Louisiana' U.S.A. title
Louisiana Weekly, 3 January 2005 (accessed 8 May 2006)

External links