A native of southern California, Malia Brauer (b. October 5, 2006 in Newhall, CA) is an American tween private chef, TV personality, culinary artist, dancer and school student best known as one of the runners up on the 7th season of FOX's MasterChef Junior. She is represented by the Buchwald Talent agency and is a student of Placerita Junior High School in Santa Clarita. In addition to her love and passion for culinary, she also enjoys dance, playing soccer and riding dirt bikes. Malia is a dance member of the Hart Dance Team in Newhall, CA.Malia was born and raised in Newhall, Santa Clarita, California. where she presently resides with her mother Deanna, her dad Chris and her older brother Austin Brauer (b. June 29, 2003). She is of Japanese, German, Greek and Italian descent but mainly loves sticking strong to her Japanese roots and culture. Malia first learned how to make and prepare sushi and spicy tuna cut rolls from her Japanese great-grandmother. She began cooking at the age of 3 by helping her mom in the kitchen, using plastic knives.In late 2017, Malia auditioned to compete on the 7th season of FOX's MasterChef Junior, filmed from early April to mid-June 2018 and aired from March 12th to June 4th, 2019. She proved to be a brilliant standout and an incredibly creative and innovative phenom from start to finish, winning the lobster, citrus, cupcake, canned tuna and semifinals elimination tests. She wowed the judges with her exceptional talent and knockout brilliance time and time again, which propelled her all the way to the grand finale. Ultimately, Malia did not win the title, trophy and cash prize money (all of which were instead awarded to her fellow finalist and best friend Che) but is nevertheless proud of herself and proud of her run.After the show, Malia has guest starred on breakfast morning TV shows such as FOX's Good Day LA, NBC's Access Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, done interviews on radios (KHTS), podcasts and phone interviews on Los Angeles and Santa Clarita news features, attended Camp MasterChef 2019 in July of 2019, being featured in the August 2019 issue of SVC elite magazine, attending the Newhall Refinery, Roy's restaurant, the 2019 Kids Food Fest and other culinary projects. Her future plans include enrolling in culinary school at UCLA and opening up a catering company, being a private chef/caterer at weddings and dinner parties. She may also be a nurse or lawyer. Show less «