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Netflix documentary considers why the Philippines is so obsessed with beauty contests. We recall the four Filipino winners of Miss Universe. Beauty pageants are a national obsession in the Philippines, where the glitzy spectacles provide a stage to showcase not just fancy fashions and hair flicks but regional pride.
Over the decades, the Southeast Asian nation has positioned itself as a beauty pageant superpower, accumulating an impressive collection of “Big Four” crowns: four Miss Universe titles, one Miss World, six Miss International and four Miss Earth titles.
Spanning three-and-a-half months of rigorous preparation and rivalries, the film explores the lives of the women vying for the crown, a stepping stone to the Miss Universe contest – the crème de la crème of the four big international events.
The first Miss Universe was held in 1952, and the Philippines has since claimed four crowns. The US holds the record with nine, followed by Venezuela with seven.
We recall the four Filipino winners of the title.
Gloria Diaz, 1969
Gloria Diaz was the first Filipino to be crowned Miss Universe, beating 60 contestants from around the world at the pageant held on July 19, 1969, in Miami Beach in the US state of Florida.
After her win, Diaz turned to acting and quickly became a prominent figure in Philippine cinema. Her breakthrough performance came in 1975 with the film Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa (The Most Animal on Earth).
She was also highly acclaimed for her role in the 2009 film Sagrada Familia and, a year later, starred in Beauty Queen and Diva.
One of 12 children, her sister Rio Díaz was also an actress and beauty queen.
Margie Moran, 1973
Margie Moran claimed her Miss Universe title in 1973 at the event held in the Greek capital, Athens. She is one of only four Miss Universe winners to have also won Miss Photogenic.
The daughter of Francis Moran, son of the Philippines’ former chief justice Manuel Moran, and Rosario “Charo” Roxas, daughter of former Philippine president Manuel Roxas, Moran did not parlay her victory into an acting career, unlike many other winners.
Instead, she set up her own events company, ran a travel agency and managed a resort. She also had a television show called Margie on Mindanao that for seven years produced documentaries on the conflict in Mindanao, an island in the country’s south.
She was also president of dance company Ballet Philippines and served as chairman of the Cultural Centre of the Philippines. In 2023, she released My Universe, a book that chronicled her extensive travels.
Pia Wurtzbach, 2015
Born in Germany, Pia Wurtzbach won the Miss Universe contest in 2015, becoming the first biracial Filipino to win the title.
The event, held in Los Angeles, was overshadowed by controversy when host Steve Harvey mistakenly announced Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez, as the winner.
Wurtzbach is a professional model, actress, host and television personality, and a cook: she studied culinary arts at the Centre for Asian Culinary Studies in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Fashion is another feather in her cap – in 2024, Wurtzbach was named as the first Filipino brand ambassador for Italian luxury fashion house Bulgari.
Catriona Gray, 2018
Catriona Gray is a Filipino-Australian beauty queen – she was born in Queensland, Australia – who was crowned the 67th Miss Universe during a ceremony on December 17, 2018, in Thailand. She also reached the top five at Miss World in 2016.
Gray has a graduate certificate in music theory from Berklee College of Music in Boston, in the US state of Massachusetts and a black belt in the Choi Kwang Do martial art.
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