Juliette Powell American-born Canadian model, television host, producer and author. She was the

Miss Canada Miss Canada is a beauty pageant for young women in Canada. It was founded in Hamilton in 1946. No title was awarded from 1993 through 2008. The trademark was purchased in 2009 by a Québec organization who produces the pageant under the name to ...

titleholder in 1989, the contest's first Black Canadian winner.

Early life

Powell was born in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York in 1971 and moved to

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

with her French-Canadian mother at the age of eight, following her parents' divorce. In high school she excelled in math and science courses and swam twice a week, and has stated she saw herself as a shy and unpopular student. Her time in the world of

beauty pageants A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

began with her outrage when she heard a rumour that the second place winner of the Miss Montreal pageant had scored higher than the first-place winner, but the judges had not accepted her as the winner because she was black. She has stated that she did not want to be a beauty queen but wanted to prove a point when she entered the Miss Montreal pageant herself, later entering and ultimately winning the 1989 Miss Canada Pageant. During this time she also studied Commerce at

Vanier College Vanier College ( French: ''Collège Vanier'') is an English-language public college located in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1970 as the second English-language public college of Quebec's public coll ...

, graduating in 1992.

Career

After her reign as Miss Canada, including representing the country at

Miss Universe 1989 Miss Universe 1989, the 38th Miss Universe pageant, was held on 23 May 1989 at the Fiesta Americana Condesa Hotel in Cancún, Mexico. Angela Visser of the Netherlands was crowned by Porntip Nakhirunkanok of Thailand. Seventy-six contestants compe ...

, Powell joined

MusiquePlus Elle Fictions (stylized ELLE Fictions) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Remstar Media Group. The channel broadcasts general entertainment programming targeting young adult women. It was first established in 1986 as the mu ...

in 1992 as a VJ, while also studying finance and business at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

. She was host of MusiquePlus' weekly dance music show, ''Bouge de là!'' until 1996. That same year, she moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, transferring to MuchMusic and becoming host of ''

Electric Circus ''Electric Circus '' (also known as ''EC'') was a Canadian live dance music television program that aired on MuchMusic and Citytv from September 16, 1988 to December 12, 2003. The name originated from a nightclub that once existed at Citytv's fir ...

'' and ''

French Kiss A French kiss, also known as cataglottism or a tongue kiss, is an amorous kiss in which the participants' tongues extend to touch each other's lips or tongue. A kiss with the tongue stimulates the partner's lips, tongue and mouth, which are se ...

'', while also studying

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. In 1999, Powell began working for

CablePulse 24 CP24 is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by Bell Media, a subsidiary of BCE Inc. and operated alongside the Bell-owned CTV Television Network's owned-and-operated television stations CFTO-DT (CTV Toronto) and CKVR-DT (CT ...

as a business reporter and founded media and consulting company Powell International Entertainment Inc. (PIE Inc.) which produced features with personalities such as Nelson Mandela, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter,

Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...

, Steven Spielberg,

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Go ...

, Janet Jackson,

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

, and Prince Charles. In 2001, she co-authored the media section for the UN Plan of Action of the

World Conference against Racism The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) is a series of international events organized by UNESCO to promote struggle against racism ideologies and behaviours. Five conferences have been held so far, in 1978, 1983, 2001, 2009 and 2021. Founded ...

. She is author of the 2008 book ''33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence and Run a Successful Business using Social Networking'' (Financial Times Press, ). In 2011, she began working with the E-G8, an extension of the

G8 Summit The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014. The forum originated ...

, created to inform G8 leaders on the future of the internet and connected society. Powell gave a

TED Talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

Unconscious Bias In social identity theory, an implicit bias or implicit stereotype, is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Implicit stereotypes are thought to be shaped by experience and b ...

at TEDx St Louis Women's event title
It's About Time We Challenge Our Unconscious Biases
in 2016. As of 2018 she was a student at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's School of General Studies.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Juliette Living people American emigrants to Canada American people of Canadian descent Black Canadian broadcasters Black Canadian women Canadian television news anchors Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian women television journalists Canadian VJs (media personalities) Miss Canada winners Miss Universe 1989 contestants Much (TV channel) personalities Television personalities from Montreal Television personalities from New York City McGill University Faculty of Management alumni University of Toronto alumni Year of birth missing (living people)