Kenya Moore

Kenya Moore

Beauty pageant titleholder
Born	Kenya Summer Moore (1971-01-24) January 24, 1971 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Education	Cass Technical High School Wayne State University
Occupation	Actress, Model, Television Personality, Author, Producer
Years active	1991–present
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Measurements	38–24–39
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Brown
Title(s)	Miss Michigan 1993 Miss USA 1993
Major competition(s)	Miss USA 1993 Miss Universe 1993 (Top 6)
Official website

Kenya Summer Moore (born January 24, 1971) is an American actress, model, television personality, author, producer and former Miss USA. She participated in the 1993 Miss Michigan USA pageant and won the Miss USA 1993 title while later finishing in the top six of the Miss Universe 1993 pageant. Moore was the second Detroit native to be crowned Miss USA (following Carole Gist who won the title in 1990). She currently stars as one of six members in the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of Atlanta since its fifth season premiere on November 4, 2012. Additionally, she founded the Kenya Moore Foundation, a charity which awards scholarships to underprivileged girls from her high school alma mater.

Moore is a contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice season 7, which premiered on January 4, 2015, a near year after filming.

Early life, modeling and pageants

Moore was born in Detroit, Michigan to teenagers Patricia Moore and Ronald Grant, and raised by her paternal grandmother and aunt after her mother abandoned her at birth. The reality TV show star revealed that her mother never named her.“Since birth, my mother made the decision at age 16 to pretend she never had me. She has never spoken to me,” Kenya wrote. “Even if present in the same room with other people and family, she pretends that I simply don’t exist. She pretends I’m invisible" Kenya revealed on her bravo blog.” She graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1989 and attended Wayne State University, where she majored in psychology and minored in communication, graduating magna cum laude. She began modeling at the age of 14 being on the cover of the January 1992 issue of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company's Ebony Man's (EM) magazine. She also became a model for the Ebony Fashion Fair cosmetic line. At 22, Kenya Moore won Miss Michigan USA (1993) and then became the second African American woman to win Miss USA. She then represented America in the Miss Universe 1993 pageant; she placed fifth.

Post-pageant career

Moore successfully leveraged her pageant wins into appearances in several television programs including: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Meet The Browns, Homeboys in Outer Space, Sparks, Smart Guy, Video Soul Living Single, Damon, In the House, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Parent 'Hood, The Steve Harvey Show, Martin, Nubian Goddess, Men, Women & Dogs, The Parkers, Under One Roof, and Girlfriends. She has also appeared on the covers of Glamour, Seventeen, Ebony, and Essence magazines and can be seen in the music videos for Jermaine Dupri's "Money Ain't a Thang" (1998), Nas's "Street Dreams" (1996), Shai's "I Don't Wanna Be Alone" (1996), and Tupac's "Tempataions". Additionally, Moore has appeared in several films: Waiting to Exhale (1995), Senseless (1998), Trois (2000), Deliver Us from Eva (2003), Brothers in Arms (2005), Cloud 9 (2006), I Know Who Killed Me (2007), and Trapped: Haitian Nights (2010). Since 2007, she has also been producing and directing, and launched her own company, Moore Vision Media in 2008. So far, her company has produced an erotic thriller entitled, “The Confidant”. In May 2012, Moore joined the season five cast of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta. In 2013, she released a workout DVD titled Kenya Moore: Booty Boot Camp. Moore was a contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice season 7 aired in 2015.

Production

Moore was credited as producer/director of the film Haitian Nights; after the project lost its director for unspecified reasons, Moore took over the production and completed the film. When the film failed to find distribution, Moore founded Moore Vision Media, an independent movie production and home-video distribution company. The company's first production was The Confidant, released by Universal Vivendi on August 24, 2010.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1995	Waiting To Exhale	Denise
1998	Senseless	Lorraine
2000	Trois	Jasmine Davis
2001	No Turning Back	Lia
2003	Deliver Us From Eva	Renee Johnson
	Hot Parts	Passion
2004	Nas: Video Anthology Vol. 1	Herself
2005	Resurrection: The J.R. Richard Story	Leticia
	Brothers in Arms	Mara
2006	Cloud 9	Champagne
2007	I Know Who Killed Me	Jazmin
2010	Trapped: Haitian Nights	Nadine
	The Confidant	Eden Patterson
2013	Dolls of Voodoo	Nadine
Television
Year	Show	Role	Notes
1994	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Dana	Mothers Day
1996	Martin	Lena Bozack	You're All I Need
	Homeboys in Outer Space	Nefertiti	Super Bad Foxy Lady Killer or Ty and Morris Get the Shaft
1997	Sparks	Ms. Collins	I, Spy
	Smart Guy	Vivian Kennedy	Brother, Brother
	Living Single	Lisa DeLongPre	One Degree of Separation
	Nubian Goddess	Herself	Host
1998	Damon	Julia Burton	The Designer
	The Steve Harvey Show	Miss Gerard	Educating Piggy
1999	The Jamie Foxx Show	Heidi	Change of Heart
	The Parent 'Hood	Celeste	Wedding Bells Blues, A Sister Scorned
	In The House	Valerie Bridgeforth	How Nana Got Her Groove Back, Not as Good as It Gets
2001	Men, Women, & Dogs	Carmen	Sick as a Dog
2004	Girlfriends	Kara	Maybe Baby, New York Bound
2012–present	Real Housewives of Atlanta	Herself
2013	Walk This Way	n/a	Abstinence
2015	Celebrity Apprentice	Herself	7th Place
2015	The Millionaire Matchmaker	Herself

External links

• Kenya Moore at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenya Moore's Official Website
• Game, Get Some! on Amazon.com
• Trois – Box Office Mojo