Elle Smith Biography: Miss USA 2021 Winner’s Age & Career

Born: June 19, 1998 ·
Birthplace: Springfield, Ohio, USA ·
Profession: Journalist, television host, model ·
Title won: Miss USA 2021 ·
Miss Universe: Top 10 (2021) ·
Known for: Miss USA, WHAS11 reporter

Eight facts anchor her public profile — and one correction matters: her employer was WHAS11 in Louisville, while WHIO-TV in Dayton covered her as a Springfield native.

Who is Elle Smith?

Elle Smith is an American journalist and beauty-pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 2021. The unusual part is the order of events: she built a reporting resume first, won her first pageant in 2021, and went back to the newsroom after the crown.

Professional background as a journalist

• Graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in political science (University of Kentucky (alumni records)).
• Joined WHAS11, the ABC affiliate in Louisville, in October 2020, after working as a reporter and videographer for university publications (Georgia Public Broadcasting (regional broadcaster)).
• Served as vice president of the University of Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (USA Today (national outlet)).
• Completed a summer 2019 internship in Fox News’ Washington, D.C., bureau, plus a videography internship in Arkansas and a semester abroad in Florence, Italy (Black America Web (culture and news)).

That mix — campus journalism, two internships, and a political-science minor — gave her a working journalist’s resume before she ever held a sash.

One correction tends to follow her name: WHIO-TV (local news) celebrated her as a Springfield native, while her actual employer was WHAS11 in Louisville, as AL.com (regional outlet) noted in its coverage.

The implication: Smith arrived at Miss USA as a practicing journalist, not a newcomer trading on a title — and that background shaped how she talked about the crown.

Early life in Springfield, Ohio

• Born June 19, 1998, in Springfield, Ohio (Wikipedia).
• Graduate of Shawnee High School in Springfield (WHIO-TV).
• Moved to Kentucky for college, where her broadcast-journalism training began (University of Kentucky).

Springfield is where her local ties run deep, even after she crossed the Ohio River for college and a career.

What this means: by the time she entered a pageant, Smith’s identity was already anchored — Ohio roots, Kentucky education, Louisville newsroom — and that made her a different kind of candidate.

Was Elle Smith Miss USA?

Yes. Smith won Miss Kentucky USA 2021 in her first pageant competition, according to University of Kentucky (alumni records), then took the national title on November 29, 2021, in Tulsa, Oklahoma (WHIO-TV (local news)).

Winning Miss USA 2021

• Represented Kentucky at the national pageant (USA Today (national outlet)).
• Became the third consecutive Black woman to win Miss USA (Black America Web (culture and news)).
• Her first pageant was Miss Kentucky USA 2021 — which she also won (University of Kentucky).

The 2021 cycle carried extra weight: Smith became the third Black woman in a row to take the title, a streak that drew national coverage, and she did it while holding down a TV reporting job.

The pattern: pageant platforms are usually aspirational, but Smith’s was already operational — she was telling Kentuckians’ stories before she introduced herself to the country.

Top 10 finish at Miss Universe 2021

• Competed at Miss Universe 2021 as the USA delegate and placed in the Top 10 (Wikipedia).

The Top-10 finish closed her competitive pageant run; she has not announced another pageant campaign since. What followed was quieter: a return to journalism, some modeling, and public attention that outlasted her reign.

The trade-off: a national title opened doors in modeling and media, but it also stamped her with a label she’ll keep explaining — “Miss USA” as a prefix to “journalist.”

How old is Elle Smith?

Birth date and current age

• Born: June 19, 1998 (Wikipedia).
• Age at Miss USA win: 23.
• Birthplace: Springfield, Ohio (WHIO-TV).

Smith was 23 when she was crowned Miss USA 2021 — young enough to fit the pageant profile, but older than the typical newcomer, because she’d spent four years in college and a year in a newsroom first. The verified date, per her Wikipedia biography, is June 19, 1998, and that’s the figure used across this profile.

The catch: “How old is Elle Smith?” gets asked because pageant winners usually get introduced young, before careers. Smith inverted the timeline — the career came first, the crown came second.

Who is Elle Smith’s partner?

Her relationship status is not publicly confirmed in the high-tier sources reviewed for this profile, and she has not made her private life part of her public platform.

The pattern: the public record is professional, and her private life stays private.

Why did Donald Trump sell Miss Universe?

The shortest honest answer: politics caught up with the pageant. Trump co-owned the Miss Universe Organization from 1996 until September 2015, when he sold it to IMG following the controversy his presidential campaign announcement provoked (Wikipedia).

• Ownership: Trump and his business partners controlled the organization from 1996.
• Sale: IMG acquired it in September 2015.
• Trigger: controversy from Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement.

Why does a sale from 2015 end up in a biography of a winner crowned six years later? Because the organization Smith competed under in 2021 was IMG’s, not Trump’s — the ownership changed hands long before her reign, but the history travels with the title.

The trade-off: Smith inherited a pageant system that politics had already reshaped. The crown she won came with institutional history she had no part in — but that history explains why the pageant circuit looked the way it did.

Eight milestones, one pattern: every professional step — education, internships, first job — came before the first pageant.

Timeline: from Springfield to the Miss Universe stage

The dates below follow the sources cited throughout this profile — Wikipedia for birth date and Miss Universe placement, WHIO-TV for the Springfield connection, and Georgia Public Broadcasting for the Louisville years.

• June 19, 1998 — Born in Springfield, Ohio (Wikipedia).
• 2016 — Graduated from Shawnee High School (WHIO-TV; Wikipedia).
• 2019 — Summer internship in Fox News’ Washington, D.C., bureau (Black America Web).
• 2020 — Graduated from the University of Kentucky; joined WHAS11 in October (University of Kentucky; Georgia Public Broadcasting).
• Nov. 29, 2021 — Crowned Miss USA 2021 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (WHIO-TV).
• 2021 — Placed Top 10 at Miss Universe 2021 (Wikipedia).
• 2022–present — Continues in journalism and modeling; no formal pageant announcement (public profile).

The pattern: the timeline front-loads journalism. Four of the seven milestones happened before her first pageant — the reverse of the typical titleholder story.

Confirmed facts vs. what’s unclear

What this means: the public record is solid on her career and her title, but thin on her private life. For researchers, that split matters — the confirmed list is professional, the unclear list is personal.

In their own words

Two quotes frame the story: one about earning the right to compete, one about the politics that reshaped the pageant system she entered.

I wanted to participate in pageants since high school, but I waited until I had a job to afford it.

Elle Smith, in an interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting (regional broadcaster) after winning Miss USA 2021

They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.

Donald Trump, 2015 presidential campaign announcement — remarks widely cited as the trigger for the Miss Universe sale

Why this matters: the first quote explains her patience; the second explains the political economy she walked into — a pageant system already reshaped by a firestorm and a sale.

The takeaway

Elle Smith’s story is the rare pageant narrative where the career came first and the crown came second — and the two compound rather than compete. The title opened doors in modeling and gave her a global stage, but the foundation underneath was four years of journalism training, two internships, and a Louisville newsroom job. For young journalists in local TV, the choice she models is clear: build the reporting career first, then let any platform — crown included — amplify work that already exists.

The alternative is the path Elle Smith didn’t take, and that contrast is why her story reads differently.

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