Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach was born in 1989 in Stuttgart, Germany, to a German father and a Filipino mother, and grew up in the Philippines. She began working as an actress and model as a teenager to support her family.
Wurtzbach competed in the Binibining Pilipinas pageant several times before winning the title in 2015. Her determination and her refusal to give up made her story especially inspiring for many fans.