Kari Ann Peniche (born March 20, 1984) is a beauty queen from Gresham, Oregon, who has competed at Miss Teen USA and held the Miss United States Teen title. She was stripped of her title after appearing nude in the November 2004 issue of Playboy Magazine.
Peniche won the Miss Oregon Teen USA 2002 title in November 2001 and competed in the Miss Teen USA 2002 pageant broadcast live from South Padre Island, Texas, in August 2002, which was won by Vanessa Semrow of Wisconsin. At the end of her reign she crowned Tami Farrell as the new Miss Oregon Teen USA.
The following year she represented Oregon in the Miss United States Teen pageant, which she won. She was later stripped of her title after appearing nude in Playboy magazine. Peniche claimed that there was nothing in her contract about not doing nude shoots, and since the issue did not hit stands until after her reign had ended, she did not think there would be an issue.
Peniche attended Portland Lutheran High School in Gresham, Oregon. The school is a private Christian school of approximately 120 people. Since relinquishing her title, Peniche appeared on one of the highest rated episodes of The Howard Stern Show and The Playhouse, a morning talk show hosted by an ex-boyfriend from her hometown. She has appeared in Species III, Pauly Shore's Minding the Store as Pauly's girlfriend, Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia, and was the star in the film Small Change. As a model she has worked overseas in print and television commercials with Samsung, LG, and Perry Ellis. She has a memorable role in the New Line film Grilled starring Ray Romano, Kevin James, and Burt Reynolds. The movie went direct to DVD in 2006.
In September 2006, it was reported that Peniche was engaged to 18-year-old singer Aaron Carter, younger brother of ex-boyfriend Nick Carter after knowing him for only 5 days. . The engagement was broken off another 6 days later.
