Kandice Pelletier (born November 21, 1981) is an American beauty queen and swimwear designer from Marietta, Georgia who has competed in the Miss America pageant and on two seasons of the reality television show ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in fore ...

''. As of 2012, she was the president of Kandice Pelletier Swimwear.

Education

Pelletier graduated with honors from

North Cobb High School North Cobb High School is a public high school located north of Atlanta in Kennesaw, Georgia, United States. It serves approximately 2900 students in the Cobb County School District, with classes from grades 9 to 12. The school mascot is the w ...

in 2000 and went on to attempt a major in communications at Kennesaw State University.A Resolution Congratulating Kandice Pelletier, Miss Cobb County 2002; and for other purposes
. Georgia General Assembly Senate Resolution 629. Retrieved 2007-02-12. Though she never graduated KSU she moved to New York City to pursue a dance career and earned a degree in entertainment communications at New York University.

Career

Performing arts

While in New York, Pelletier worked as a Radio City Music Hall Rockette and was immortalized into the Rockette wax figure at

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer us ...

Time's Square location. Pelletier later appeared in the movie-musical remake of '' The Producers'' as a member of the dancing chorus ("a girl with the pearls") . Kandice appeared as the 'coach' on MTV's reality television series ''MADE'' in the episode entitled "Beauty Queen". It was episode 23 of season nine of the program.

Pageantry

Pelletier competed in her first Miss America state pageant in 2002 when she was a quarter-finalist in the Miss Georgia pageant as Miss Cobb County. She returned as Miss Coastal Georgia the following year and placed first runner-up. Representing Georgia, Pelletier went on to win the

National Sweetheart Miss National Sweetheart is a United States beauty pageant created in 1941 where runners-up from the Miss America state pageants are invited to Hoopeston, Illinois Hoopeston () is a city in Grant Township, Vermilion County, Illinois, United Stat ...

pageant for Miss America state runners-up in 2003. After moving to New York to attend New York University, Pelletier competed as Miss Manhattan in the Miss New York pageant and placed first runner-up to Christina Ellington, who she had competed against at

. The following year she won the Miss New York 2005 title, after winning the Miss Greater New York City local pageant. In 2005, Pelletier was also a double state preliminary winner, with awards for swimsuit and talent. Pelletier's sister Kendra Pelletier is also involved in pageantry. She placed in the top fifteen at the

Miss Georgia USA The Miss Georgia USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Georgia in the Miss USA pageant. This pageant is directed Greenwood Productions under the ownership of Miss Tennessee USA 1989 Kim Greenwood and ...

2007 pageant won by

Brittany Swann The Miss Georgia USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Georgia in the Miss USA pageant. This pageant is directed Greenwood Productions under the ownership of Miss Tennessee USA 1989 Kim Greenwood and i ...

and second runnerup in the Miss Capital City 2007 pageant in the Miss Georgia system. She also competed in the 2007 Miss Georgia Pageant as Miss Southern Rivers where she was a top 10 finalist.

''The Amazing Race''

She appeared on Season 10 with race partner Dustin, who competed at Miss America 2006 as

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the M ...

. After traveling through Asia, Africa and Europe the pair finished in fourth place. They also competed in ''All-Stars'' season after traveling through South America, Africa, Poland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Guam, Hawaii and their final destination in San Francisco, the pair finished in second place, ultimately fell short in the final leg - losing the one million dollar grand prize and The Amazing Race: All Stars winners' title to Dating Eric & Danielle who competed on opposing teams in Season 9.

Vanity Fair

Pelletier appeared alongside

James Gandolfini James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (; September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor. For his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'', he won three Emmy Awards, five Screen ...

on the April 2007 cover of Vanity Fair shot by

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of J ...

Swimwear

In 2011, she started a swimwear line, Kandice Pelletier Swimwear, focused on providing swimsuits to pageant contestants. The company sponsors over 50 state pageants each year in the Miss America and Miss USA systems. The company also served as the official swimwear of the

Miss USA 2014 Miss USA 2014 was the 63rd Miss USA pageant, held at the Raising Cane's River Center Arena in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 8, 2014. All fifty states and the District of Columbia competed. The preliminary competition was not webcast live fo ...

competition, the

Miss Teen USA 2014 Miss Teen USA 2014, the 32nd Miss Teen USA pageant. It was held at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in Nassau, Bahamas on August 2, 2014 and was hosted by Australian journalist Karl Jeno Schmid and Miss USA 2013 Erin Brady. Cassidy Wolf of ...

competition, and the

Miss Teen USA 2013 Miss Teen USA 2013 was the 31st Miss Teen USA pageant, held on August 10, 2013 at Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas and was hosted by Australian journalist Karl Jeno Schmid and Miss Teen USA 2003 Tami Farrell. Logan West of Connecti ...

competition. In addition to

, and

, Pelletier's clients include the last three winners of the Miss America competition, who each won their state titles wearing Pelletier's swimsuits earning Pelletier the nickname "America’s pageant swimwear expert".

Personal life

She lives in New York City.

References

External links

Pageant News Bureau profile Kandice Pelletier - Amazing Race Wiki
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelletier, Kandice The Amazing Race (American TV series) contestants Living people Miss America 2006 delegates 1981 births People from Marietta, Georgia Kennesaw State University alumni The Rockettes Miss New York winners New York University alumni