Alicia Machado was born in Venezuela. It all started for her when on September 27, 1995. She represented her home state of Yaracuy in the Miss Venezuela pageant. Needless to say, she won the Miss Venezuela crown.

The following year Alicia went to Las Vegas, Nevada to represent Venezuela in the Miss Universe pageant. Alicia prepared herself hard, up to 14 hours a day which included catwalking, picture posing, oratory, English, etc. On May 17, 1996, all that training, hard work and of course her beauty paid off: She became the 1996 Miss Universe.

A few months after winning Miss Universe title, Alicia Machado started to gain weight, which she atributed to the 'wisdom teeth' she had to take out and made her look a little chubby. Nevertheless, she kept gaining weight until she reached about 12 kilos (about 20lbs) overweight. The organizers of Miss Universe considered disqualifying her since she was representing the most beautiful, perfect woman in the world. According to the organizers, being a bit overweight did not represent those values.

Alicia Machado has been the most publicized Miss Universe. Her weight gain and possible disqualification made news around the globe. This issue had such impact in the contest that even one of the questions to finalists was: "Do you think if the elected Miss Universe gains weight, should she be disqualified as Miss Universe?" to which all answered "No" because whether a Miss Universe gains weight or not, she's still the same person.

When she returned the crown to her succesor, she started working as an actress performing in the telenovela "Samantha", winning the Nidia Awards as best actress. She's worked on a number of telenovelas, and recorded a CD which was not successful.

Alicia is causing a stir now, after a voyeur video from a reality show on which she is participating (La granja, Antena 3 TV, Spain) shows her having steamy sex with one of her roommates (Fernando Acaso) despite having a boyfriend.