California

Miss America Has Deep Bay Area Roots

There she is -- a Walnut Creek native.

Miss America may be from New York this year, but make no mistake: she's a California girl.

Kira Kazantev, 23, went to school in Walnut Creek, graduating in 2009 from Las Lomas High School before she went east for college and pageant glory, the Contra Costa Times reported.

She also won her fair share of beauty contests out here.

In 2007, the high school student won Miss California Junior Teen, and she scored the title of Miss California Preteen in 2004, the newspaper reported.

She was class president as well as captain of the cheer squad at Las Lomas, the only person to do both at the same time, the newspaper noted.

Her dad, George Kazantsev, is a surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland and her mother, Julia, is a real estate agent in Lafayette for Sotheby's International.

She speaks Russian and Spanish as well as English. The graduate of Hofstra University on Long Island plans to go to law school after she is done with being Miss America in 2016.

Contact Us