All About Candiace Dillard Bassett's Career and Time in the White House
The RHOP alumni and Traitors star has an incredible career that worth exploring.
If you're a fan of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Potomac, then you're already familiar with Candiace Dillard Bassett's smarts and forthright nature.
Even though she exited the series in 2024, Candiace comes into The Traitors Season 4 with the loyalty of her fellow Housewives and the can-do confidence of a whole other life lived outside of reality television to bolster her game play.
She's been a pageant queen, a singer with an album that charted in the top 25 current R&B Albums Chart, is the co-founder of Prima Hair Collection, and was even an Obama administration staffer.
We dive into her diverse career background below.
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What you should know about Candiace Dillard Bassett
Candiace Dillard was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, but she was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. She has an undergrad degree and an M.B.A. from Howard University.
For Bravo fans and specifically those who watch RHOP, Candiace is a familiar face as a six season veteran of the show where she was a cast member from Season 3 through Season 8. However, she started her career in entertainment and scholarship modeling, competing in the pageant industry for many years where her bio lists her top placements in the Sunburst, National American Miss, National Miss American Coed, Georgia Miss American Coed, Miss Maryland USA, and Miss District of Columbia USA. She was crowned Miss United States in 2013.
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She also worked in local news at WTTG-Fox News Washington, D.C..
How long was Candiace Dillard Bassett's White House career?
In June 2010, Dillard transitioned to working in public service under the Obama administration. For 10 months, she worked in the White House serving as a liaison between the administration and the African-American community. In February 2012, Dillard took on a role as a staffer and field organizer for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
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In 2019, she shared with the The Congressional Black Caucus how the work she did prepared her for her next career chapters.
"The number one thing that those experiences gave me, that I could never get anywhere else, was how to be scrappy," Dillard said. "You can't tell me no anymore. You can't tell me I can't figure something out anymore because I've done everything backwards and forwards six times. So it's like, 'I can't do it this way, okay, it's fine. I'm going to flip it and to it another way. I can't get this thing done, I can't talk to this person today, I'm going to talk to someone else.It really underscores what being a hard and smart worker can accomplish...'"
What else has Candiace Dillard Bassett done?
In September 2021, Candiace released her debut studio album “Deep Space” which reached number 24 on the R&B Albums Chart. She also established Candiace Dillard Pageant Consulting and co-founded, Prima Hair Collection.
She married Chris Bassett in 2018 and in October 2024, she gave birth to their first baby, Jett Maxwell Lee Bassett.
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