Clarissa Molina (born Clarissa María Molina Contreras; September 23, 1991) is a Dominican model and beauty queen who won Miss Dominican Republic 2015 and represented the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

at the

Miss Universe 2015 Miss Universe 2015 was the 64th Miss Universe pageant, held at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on December 20, 2015. This was the first edition of the pageant to be held under the ownership of WME/IMG, which ...

pageant. She later won the title of

Nuestra Belleza Latina 2016 ''Nuestra Belleza Latina 2016'' (stylized as NBL VIP) was the tenth season of ''Nuestra Belleza Latina'' aired on Univision. It was the first "All Star" season from the entire series. The season premiered on Sunday February 28, 2016 pushed back fr ...

after having placed third Runner-Up the previous year. She is the winner of Mira Quien Baila All-Stars 2019, and now works as a reporter with Univision in El Gordo y La Flaca.

Personal life

Molina was born in

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

, Dominican Republic and is the daughter of Domingo Molina and Clara Contreras. At the age of 11, her parents separated and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was left in the Dominican Republic with her stepmother. At age 15 she and her siblings moved to New Jersey with their uncle and cousins. She resides in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

after winning the Nuestra Belleza Latina pageant. She holds both Dominican and American citizenships.

Pageantry

Nuestra Belleza Latina 2015

Molina auditioned for

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

's reality show and beauty pageant

Nuestra Belleza Latina 2015 ''Nuestra Belleza Latina 2015'' (also known as NBL 2015) is the ninth season of '' Nuestra Belleza Latina'' and the ninth season to be aired on Univision. The season premiere was on Sunday January 18, 2015, the earliest premiere of all nine seaso ...

in New York City on October 4, 2014. Judge Jomari Goyso and guest judges Daniel Arenas and Veronica Bastos did not give her a pass to enter the competition due to them seeing her as arrogant. Days later head judge Osmel Sousa went to her home in New Jersey to personally invite her to be part of the competition. After several eliminations, she was selected to be part of the 12 finalists who enter the mansion of Nuestra Belleza Latina where she became a favorite among both the judges and audience. After 13 weeks of competition, she made it to the Top 4 and finished as third Runner-Up. The eventual winner was

Francisca Lachapel Francisca Antonia Méndez Zampogna (née Méndez Montero; born 5 May 1989 in Azua (city), Azua de Compostela) is a Dominican Americans, Dominican-American beauty pageant, actress, TV host, and beauty pageant titleholder, who was crowned Nuestra ...

of the

Miss Dominican Republic 2015

After Clarissa had finished competing in Nuestra Belleza Latina Clarrisa competed in Miss Dominican Republic 2015 representing the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

of Espaillat where she was eventually crowned the winner, earning the right to represent the country at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant.

Miss Universe 2015

Clarissa represented the Dominican Republic at

where she competed to succeed outgoing titleholder

Paulina Vega Paulina Vega Dieppa (; born 15 January 1993) is a Colombian television host, model and beauty queen crowned Miss Colombia 2013 and Miss Universe 2014. Vega is the second Miss Universe from Colombia. Early life Paulina Vega Dieppa was born in Ba ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, eventually finished in the Top 10. A later evaluate give her the sixth place. The eventual winner was

Pia Wurtzbach Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach ( ; ; born September 24, 1989), formerly known professionally as Pia Romero, is a Filipino model, actress and beauty queen who is known for being crowned Miss Universe 2015. She joined Binibining Pilipinas pageant three ...

of the Philippines.

NBL VIP 2016 - Nuestra Belleza Latina 2016

In 2016, Clarissa Molina was chosen by the production of Nuestra Belleza Latina to compete in

. The season was referred to as "NBL VIP" and was the shows first All Star season, consisting of twenty-six returning non-winning/runner up contestants representing the shows nine seasons for a second chance to win the title. On May 22, 2016, after 6 weeks of competition Clarissa Molina was crowned as Nuestra Belleza Latina 2016, making her the second Dominican to obtain the title, after

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. Clarissa and Francisca's wins made the Dominican Republic the first nation to obtain crowns in two consecutive years. Clarissa's win also ties the Dominican Republic and Mexico for the second most wins, each nation obtaining two crowns. She is also the second winner to have been born in the 1990s after

Marisela de Montecristo Marisela de Montecristo (born 25 August 1992) is a Salvadoran-born model, television presenter, actress, and beauty pageant titleholder who has been crowned Nuestra Belleza Latina 2013 and Miss El Salvador 2018. After winning Nuestra Belleza La ...

Career

Molina currently works as a social media correspondent on the TV show El Gordo y la Flaca.

Filmography

Her dream was always to be a Hollywood star, and in 2018 she got her wish. Molina starred the Dominican movie ''Que Leon,'' accompanied by the reggaeton artist Ozuna. The movie is about how a relationship blooms between two people with different social statuses.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molina, Clarissa Living people Beauty pageant contestants 1991 births Dominican Republic female models Dominican Republic people of Spanish descent Miss Universe 2015 contestants Dominican Republic beauty pageant winners Nuestra Belleza Latina winners