Model Agency Boss

Deborah Miller runs her own model agency and has helped make Miss Universe a fashionable hit, writes DANIEL HOY.

A few years ago Australian interest in the Miss Universe contest was on the wane. The event was regarded as a throwback to a time when young women were largely seen as mere sex objects. All that changed in 2004 when a former rugby league cheerleader named Jennifer Hawkins won the title.

She used the exposure from her win to create a television career for herself and single-handedly revive interest in the event. Miss Australia director Deborah Miller says that since 2004 the number of entries from around Australia has more than doubled.

“Jennifer’s win has, in the past two years, made it more fashionable,” she says. “It used to be very old-fashioned. Now I think it has been revived. “She is a great role model. Other girls, especially young girls, can aspire to that. She is a great role model.” Miller has been involved in the Miss Universe contest for the past 10 years, and established her own Cosmopolitan modelling agency 12 years ago.

On the surface she seems to have achieved her career ambition. “After studying drama and music, I was auditioning here and abroad. I also cut my teeth in marketing and promotion and tried to pick up the tools for a glamorous life,” she says. It would be hard to come up with a more glamorous existence than working in the modelling industry.

And as Miller wanders past an enormous mirror during a photo shoot, some of that glamour has clearly rubbed off. She primps and preens with the best.
“It is fantastic. Fun, glamorous and I love it. The hours are long but the rewards are great,” she says. “I love discovering someone and sending them off to work internationally.”

Miller admits that, throughout her career, opportunities seem to have dropped into her lap. But each time one of those opportunities presented itself, she worked hard to take advantage of it.
THAT’S how she built her agency, became an international scout for such overseas agencies as Elite New York and Next Paris, and became director of the Miss Australia contest.
“I just happened to meet people while doing other jobs, and opportunities have just come to me,” she says. “I have not chased anything — things just fell in my lap. And when they do, you have to recognise the opportunity and just go for it.”

One of her biggest breaks came when she discovered her own Miss Australia. “One of our girls, Renee Henderson, was Miss Australia in 1999,” she says. As with a lot of jobs, much of the glamour is on the surface.

“I start at 9am and finish between 7.30pm and 8pm every night,” Miller says. “Most of the time is spent on the phone, calling people, promoting models, organising itineraries, and looking at opportunities for models.” Her time working on the Miss Australia contest takes up only a few months of her year. It is her job to make sure the event has sponsors and runs smoothly. She has also been encouraged to work on a bid to bring the 2007 Miss Universe final to Melbourne.

But discovering new talent is still what floats her boat. “I love developing talent, starting careers, seeing how far they go and how fast it can happen. “I sign someone and within 24 hours people in New York send tickets for the girl and her family to go over. It can happen that fast.”