Shweta Sekhon (born Shwetajeet Kaur Sekhon, 6 November 1997), is a Malaysian model and beauty pageant titleholder. She was crowned as Miss World Malaysia 2016 and Miss Universe Malaysia 2019. She represented Malaysia at the Miss Universe 2019 pageant in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Background

Shweta was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia of a local

Malaysian Indian Indo-Malaysians are Malaysian of South Asian ancestry. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India to British Malaya from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Most Malaysian Indians are ethnic Tamils; smaller groups include the ...

of ethnic Punjabi descent. She was named after Bollywood actor

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

's eldest daughter, Shweta Nanda. She was raised by a single mum, a former

Malaysia Airlines Malaysia Airlines ( Malay: ''Penerbangan Malaysia'') is the flag carrier of Malaysia, headquartered at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The airline flies to destinations across Europe, Oceania and Asia from its main hub at Kuala Lumpur Int ...

stewardess, together with her older sister Sabrina. She completed her form six studies at SMK Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur. She is fluent in English, Malay, Punjabi, and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. She also decided to take a break from pursuing her tertiary education to focus on beauty pageants.

Pageantry

;Miss Malaysia World 2016 Shweta was scouted online for Miss World Malaysia 2016 pageant and chosen as the official Top 18 of the pageant. At the end of the pageant, she was initially placed as the second runner-up. In September 2016, she was elevated to first runner-up when Ranmeet Jassal gave up her first runner-up title. Six months after the pageant finals, she assumed the Miss Malaysia World 2016 title replacing the winner Tatiana Kumar, who was stripped off title due to "breach of conduct". She was the first in the history of beauty pageants in Malaysia to receive an unprecedented double promotion. Unfortunately, she did not compete in the Miss World 2017 pageant due to conflict in the organization. ;Miss Universe Malaysia 2019 Shweta auditioned for the Miss Universe Malaysia 2019 and was chosen as the official Top 18. She was crowned as Miss Universe Malaysia 2019 as well as received subsidiary title, Miss Glojas Beauty by her predecessor, Jane Teoh in the final competition at The Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 7 March 2019. ;Miss Universe 2019 Shweta represented Malaysia at Miss Universe 2019 pageant which was held on 8 December 2019 in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

but was unplaced. An unfortunate incorrect announcement was made during the national costume winner announcement.

Advocacy

Shweta launched a campaign, #YourBodyYourSay as her

Miss Universe Malaysia Miss Universe Malaysia is an annual national beauty pageant and an organization that selects Malaysia's representative to the annual Miss Universe contest. On occasion, when the winner does not qualify (due to age or any other reason), a runner- ...

advocacy campaign in August 2019. She hopes to build a much more positive society who is not fearful of accepting their true and real, authentic self. As part of the campaign, she conducted sharing sessions at universities such as HELP University and MAHSA University. The session at MAHSA University was featured in webisode, "Love, Shweta" that was released in October 2019.

Modelling career

2019 – 2020

In July 2019, Shweta graced the cover for "Bela", "KL Lifestyle", and AEON Malaysia's Pearl magazine. She was also featured in the pages of fashion magazines, "Remaja" and "Majalah Nona". She also walked for Kedah Fashion Week held at Aman Central Mall in

Alor Setar Alor Setar ( Kedah Malay: ) is the state capital of Kedah, Malaysia. It is the second-largest city in the state after Sungai Petani and one of the most-important cities on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It is home to the third-tallest ...

. In August, she walked for Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week in Alia Bustaman. In February 2020, Shweta graces the cover of FEMALE magazine.

Filmography

Film

Television series

Television

Awards and recognition

*Special Awards at "Konsert Throwbaek 2019" by Astro – Malaysian Sweetheart

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sekhon, Shweta 1997 births Beauty pageant contestants from Kuala Lumpur Living people Miss Universe 2019 contestants Models from Kuala Lumpur Malaysian people of Indian descent Malaysian female models Malaysian beauty pageant winners