Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir

She was crowned Miss World 2005 on 10 December 2005, in the Beauty Crown Theatre located in the Chinese beach city of Sanya, by the reigning beauty queen, 2004's Miss Peru Maju Mantilla.

Mexico (Dafne Molina Lona) and Puerto Rico (Ingrid Marie Rivera) were the first and second runners up. Other contestants who made it into the final six were Miss Italy (Sofia Bruscoli), Miss Korea (Oh Eun-young) and Miss Tanzania (Nancy Abraham Sumari).

For the past year she has been studying anthropology at the University of Iceland and next autumn she commence her studies in law as she plans to graduate as a lawyer, as well as an anthropologist. During the summer of 2005 Unnur Birna temped as a police officer at Keflavík International Airport. She is the chairman of the college social club and teaches dance. She enjoys acting, singing, all types of dancing, snow-boarding, hiking, camping, horsemanship and has a special talent for choreography and playing the piano.

Her mother, Unnur Steinsson, won the Miss Iceland pageant in 1983 and was a finalist at the Miss World 1983 pageant. Unnur's mother was 3–4 months pregnant during the pageant. This was against the pageant rules and warrants disqualification. However, this was not found out until after the pageant was over. Unnur is the third Miss World from Iceland, the former two were Linda Pétursdóttir in 1988 and Hólmfríður Karlsdóttir in 1985.

Unnur Birna's reign as Miss World was the shortest ever, which only lasted nine months since the 2006 edition was scheduled in September. During her reign, she traveled to the United Kingdom, the United States, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, China, Brazil and many more countries.

She crowned her successor, Taťána Kuchařová of Czech Republic, the next Miss World on 30 September 2006.[1]

Unnur has starred as Anna in the movie The Higher Force as Anna – the girl on the dance floor. In 2009, she portrayed a character named Tóta in a movie named Jóhannes.[2]

In 2011, Unnur featured in an ad promoting The Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa and tourist attraction in Iceland.[3]

Unnur has hosted the "Miss Reykjavik 2010" pageant.