As a child Helena Christensen was more interested in becoming a musician, but as fate would have it began modeling at the age of 9. After leaving school, she moved to Paris, France to model for the french magazine 'Elle', and in 1986 she competed in the Miss Universe contest as Miss Denmark, but unfortunately did not receive a placing. Her big break came in June of 1989 when she was discovered by photographer Friedemann Hauss, who instinctively knew that Helena was a 'natural' in terms of modeling ability. Since then her career has taken off, and she is now one of the top international catwalk queens. Helena has since taken on the movie industry, starring in a British TV movie Inferno (1980) and following it up with a cameo role in Robert Altman's Prêt-à-porter (1994).