Candace Elizabeth Smith (born February 1, 1977 in Dayton, Ohio) is an African-American model, actress, lawyer, and former beauty queen. She appeared as one of Barker's Beauties on The Price is Right during its 32nd season and was also a contestant on Survivor: Tocantins.
Early Life[]
Native of Dayton, Ohio. Candace grew up as a tomboy and athlete, competing in soccer, basketball and track. She lacked fear or inhibition and was always ready to take on new challenges. At a young age, she began performing at a young age at the Dayton Playhouse. Throughout high school and college, she participated in Drama as well as athletics. After High School, she attended the University of Dayton on a full academic scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Communications. During this time, she completed a Communications and Marketing program at the University of London. Candace attended law school at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. After passing the Ohio Bar exam in 2002, Candace began practicing commercial real estate law at the largest law firm in Ohio. It was during this time she won the title of Miss Ohio USA.
Modeling Career & Beauty Pageantry[]
After she won the title of Miss Ohio USA 2003 in Portsmouth, Ohio, Candace went on to represent her home state in the Miss USA 2003 in San Antonio, Texas. As Miss Ohio USA 2003, Smith dedicated her time to several charities including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Artemis House (women’s shelter) and the USO.
After her stint in the beauty pageantry, Smith was soon on the move as she headed west to Los Angeles. Once upon her arrival there, Candace began making a name for herself in the entertainment industry as a connector, producer, actress, casting director and model. Soon after her arrival she accepted the position of project manager for the W.I.N. Project, an events, marketing and consulting company. As project manager, Smith had the opportunity to manage several global ventures, including the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival.
While in this position, she established herself as a no-nonsense “connector” for impressive clientele worldwide seeking both professional and personal guidance.
Candace began consulting for clients in the areas of business and lifestyle but naturally her single clients began turning to her for direction with their love lives. Matchmaking, relationship counseling and coaching came easily to Candace as a result of her Psychology degree, acute intuition, candor, reputable networks, and varied life experience.
The Price is Right[]
Candace also had an itch for appearing in front of the camera as well. One of her very first TV gigs was appearing as one of Barker's Beauties on the television game show The Price is Right during its 32nd season on the air. She made her televised debut on the program on (airdate) January 30, 2004 and her first string of appearance ran until February 19th, followed by eight more appearances from March 4th to the 8th and again from the 10th to the 23rd and lastly from the 25th to April 1st, all total: 29 appearances.
Years after her stint on The Price is Right ended, Candace shed some light about her experience on television's longest running game show and apparently it wasn't a pleasant one. She revealed in an interview that she was not very well liked by the show's producers, some even labeling her an "uncooperative model" and that she didn't like "not being able to talk".
Acting Career[]
After she parted ways with The Price is Right, Smith went on to land other TV and movie roles. She landed guest starring roles on shows such as on Fox's Method & Red, HBO's Entourage and NBC's Joey.
In 2006, she appeared in the raunchy Broken Lizard comedy Beerfest playing a character named Naomi. She worked with Broken Lizard again in the 2010 comedy The Slammin' Salmon in which she plays the sister of late actor Michael Clarke Duncan.
She also appeared in the 2012 film The Babymakers as a character named Roxie. Candace went on to appear in David Ayer's End of Watch, as a distressed mother who receives help from Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña. Her most recent film is Gimme Shelter written and directed by Ron Krauss, starring Rosario Dawson, Brendan Fraser and Vanessa Hudgens.
As a producer, Candace had the opportunity to work with Nelson George on the VH1 documentary Finding the Funk. In 2014, she produced an unscripted television series, which premieres on WE TV in 2015. She is developing both unscripted and scripted projects.
Survivor: Tocantins[]
In between acting and modeling jobs, Candace also competed on Survivor. She appeared in its 18th season: Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands. The season was filmed in the microregion of Jalapão in Tocantins, Brazil from November 2nd to December 10, 2008 and the episodes began airing on February 12 to May 17, 2009 (season finale & live reunion show). Candace was part of the Timbira tribe and didn't last on the show very long as she was the second contestant eliminated from the game (airdate: February 19, 2009).
Interests[]
Second to love, travel is Candace’s true passion. She has road tripped through New Zealand, swam in the Dead Sea, explored the beaches of Spain, rolled cigars in the Dominican Republic, kayaked in Mexico, studied in London, “worked” in Turks and Caicos, sun bathed in most of the Caribbean, back packed throughout Bahia, Brazil and led a research project in Cuba. When not traveling, this former National Junior Olympic sprinter loves to go for a run outside, cook for friends, donate her time to the Downtown Women’s Center and most importantly spread love!
She also continues to model in national commercial and print campaigns.
Since 2014, Candace has been a part of the Bravo original series The Millionaire Matchmaker (since season 8) as the Director of Recruiting working with Patti Stanger. The premiere episode of the 8th season was the most watched in the history of the series with 1.5 million viewers.
Gallery[]
(Candace on The Price is Right)
(Candace on Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker)
