Priya Serrao

Serrao was born in Belmannu, Karnataka,^[4] to a Mangalorean Catholic family, and spent most of her early childhood living in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.^[5][6] When she was 11, the family immigrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne and attended high school in the Mac.Robertsons' High School.^[7][8][9] She has two university degrees: one in arts from Monash University^[10] and one in law from Melbourne Law School.^[11] In 2016, she completed an internship in Timor-Leste with the UN Development Programme.^[12] Serrao works as a policy adviser for the Government of Victoria, and was to be admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria as a lawyer in 2019.^[8][13]

Serrao began her pageantry career at the Miss Universe Australia 2019 competition.^[14] She was later selected as one of the national finalists in the competition for the state of Victoria on 10 March 2019.^[15] Serrao competed in the final on 27 June 2019, and won, beating first runner-up Bella Kasimba of Western Australia. She then represented Australia in the Miss Universe 2019 competition on 9 December 2019, but was unplaced.^[1][16]