Samantha Katie James (born 2 November 1994) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

- Brazilian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned

Miss Universe Malaysia 2017 Miss Universe Malaysia 2017, the 51st edition of the Miss Universe Malaysia, was held on 23 February 2017 at the Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Samantha James of Kuala Lumpur of was crowned by the outgoing titleholder, Kiran Jassal of Selangor at ...

. She represented her country in

Miss Universe 2017 Miss Universe 2017 was the 66th Miss Universe pageant, held at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States on November 26, 2017. At the end of the event, Iris Mittenaere of France crowned Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Af ...

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Personal life

Samantha Katie James is of Brazilian and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

descent, who hails from Klang, Selangor. James has never met her biological father, and her biological mother left her in a foster care from the age of 2 to 17. She has worked as a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a mea ...

since the age of 17. James speaks fluent

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, and she also understands

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

. She is a

pescatarian Pescetarianism (; sometimes spelled pescatarianism) is the practice of incorporating seafood into an otherwise vegetarian diet. Pescetarians may or may not consume other animal products such as eggs and dairy products. Approximately 3% of adul ...

Career

Acting

She was one of the main actors for Indonesian-Malaysian horror movie, "Kastil Tua" (2015) based on old abandoned

Kellie's Castle Kellie's Castle (sometimes also called Kellie's Folly) is a castle located in Batu Gajah, Kinta District, Perak, Malaysia. The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a Scottish planter named William Kellie-Smith. According to differing ac ...

. She also played a role in an upcoming Chinese international movie, "Huang", where she spoke fluent Chinese. In 2017, she acted in a Malaysian

telemovie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, "Wanita Terindah" along

Fattah Amin Abdul Fattah bin Mohd Amin (born 14 September 1990) is a Malaysian actor and singer. He is known for playing as Adrian, the main character in the drama ''Playboy Itu Suami Aku''. After his debut performance was criticized for lack of inventory a ...

and

Fazura Nur Fazura Binti Sharifuddin (born 27 September 1983), better known as Fazura, is a Malaysian actress, singer, television Host, VJ and entrepreneur. She began her career in the Malaysian entertainment industry by hosting a television show a ...

. The telemovie premiered at GSC Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and was aired on

Astro Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band * Astro (Japanese band), ...

First Channel beginning 2 November 2017.

Controversy

On 1 June 2020, she was criticized for posting a story on her Instagram account targeted towards the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

movement and

black community Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

as a whole. It was suggested that they should see the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

as a challenge, and that they chose to be born in the United States as coloured people, in order "to learn a certain lesson". On the same day, a petition calling for the

Miss Universe Malaysia Miss Universe Malaysia is an annual national beauty pageant 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-up is sent. Histo ...

committee to strip her off her crown and title garnered 21,000 signatures. Miss Universe Malaysia disavowed her comments. Her account on Instagram quickly became unverified following the controversy. However, the check mark reappeared after a few days. On 24 August 2021, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia The COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). , with over 4,945,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, over 27,000 active ca ...

, she insisted on not wearing face coverings except when "undercover around annoying people", whilst further commenting on the use of face masks; remarking "I will never wear that f****ng diaper on my face."

Pageantry

Miss Universe Malaysia 2013

James competed in Miss Universe Malaysia 2013, and was placed in the top 8.

Miss Universe Malaysia 2017

On her second attempt James was crowned as Miss Universe Malaysia 2017 on February 23, 2017 at The Majestic Hotel in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. She was crowned by outgoing titleholder Kiran Jassal.

Miss Universe 2017

James competed in the

Pageant at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. She was considered one of the fan favorites to win, but she failed to make a placement.

Filmography

Film

Telemovie

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Samantha Katie Malaysian beauty pageant winners Malaysian female models Living people 1994 births Models from Kuala Lumpur Miss Universe 2017 contestants Malaysian people of Chinese descent Malaysian people of Brazilian descent Miss Universe Malaysia People from Selangor Malaysian actresses Racism in Malaysia