Riyo Mori

I was browsing through some online news when I stumbled across an interview with Japan’s Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori. Born on December 24, 1986 in Shizuoka, she began taking dance at a young age and even studied ballet in Canada. At the age of 20, Riyo entered the Miss Universe competition on her grandmother’s words of encouragement, and the rest is history.

The competition landed her on MTV’s reality show ‘Pageant Place’ where she lived in New York City with other Miss Universe Organization pageant winners. Besides her love for shopping in Ginza and Harajuku, Riyo wants to continue teaching kids to express themselves through the art of dancing.