Alicia Machado, Miss Universe 1996

Yoseph Alicia Machado Fajardo was born on December 6, 1976 in Maracay, Aragua State, Venezuela. From 1979 to 1983 she studied classic ballet and soon she danced contemporary dance during eight years. In 1993 she graduated as bachelor in the mixed grammar school " Calicantina " of Maracay. That same year she began studies of Administrative Sciences at the UNITEC. In 1994 she made sporadic commercial in Caracas with the agency of models that directs the Hundredth Mariela.

Her journey started on September 27, 1995 when she was representing the state of Yaracuy in Venezuela winning the crown of Miss Venezuela. Next year, in 1996, Alicia went to Las Vegas, Nevada USA to represent Venezuela in Miss Universe 1996 Pageant. For this contest Alicia prepared, and trained herself hard, up to 14 hours a day which included catwalking, picture posing, oratory, English, etc. On May 17, 1996, all that training, and hard work, and of course her beauty was enough to take the crown home, she became the Miss Universe titleholder.

A few months after winning the tittle, Alicia Machado started to gain weight, to which she atributed to the 'wisdom teeth' she had to take out and so made her look a little chubby. Nevertheless, she kept gaining weight until she reached about 12 kilos (about 20lbs) overweight. The organizers of Miss Universe though of taking the crown from here since she was representing the most beautiful, and perfect woman in the world, and so overweight didn't make happy the board of directors. On January 1997, Mr. Trump, the president of Miss Universe Organization humiliated her making her workout in front of photographers. She argued about this but, at the end she had to do it because she was an 'employee of the Miss Universe Organization.

When Alicia finished her reign, she started working as an actress performing in telenovela "Samatha" winning the Nidia Awards as best actress and ACE with Best new Actress. In 1999 she traveled to Mexico while carried out the soap opera "Infierno En El Paraiso" (Hell in the Paradise). After that, Alicia made numerous of soap operas such as Amor Secreto in 2001, Mambo y Canela in 2002, Pantera in 2007, and Amor sin maquillaje in 2007.

Machado currently lives in Mexico City. On June 25, 2008, Alicia gave birth to her daughter, Dinorah Valentina, with then boyfriend, Mexican businessman Rafael Hernandez Linares.