Bailey Hanks Wins MTV Legally Blonde Search; Starts as Elle Woods on July 23

Bailey Hanks, a 20 year old from Anderson, South Carolina, was named the winner of MTV's Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods in the show's finale on July 21. Hanks will make her Broadway debut in the lead role of Legally Blonde on Wednesday, July 23. Runner-up Autumn Hurlbert will also join the Broadway company of the show on that day, playing sorority girl Leilani and also covering the role of Elle Woods.

Click here to see Broadway.com's exclusive chat with Hanks!

Hanks first stepped on a stage in the role of Baby June in Gypsy. She soon became heavily involved in community theater, appearing in several productions at the Alverson Center Theatre in Anderson. As a teenager, she even directed and appeared in a production of Seussical at the theater. Some of Hanks' other community theater credits include Hello, Dolly, The Music Man and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She learned of the Legally Blonde search while studying acting at Coastal Carolina University and auditioned in Nashville, Tennessee.

Hanks learned she won the competition onstage at the Palace Theatre during the taping of the finale for Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods on March 18, but had to keep the news to herself for four months. After moving to New York City, she started rehearsals for the role in late June, disguising herself on the streets of New York in a brunette wig and dark shades.

Ghostlight Records, which released the successful Legally Blonde cast recording in 2007, recorded a single of Hanks singing the Elle Woods song "So Much Better." To find out more about the single, which is now available for download, and to see Broadway.com's special music video with Hanks in the recording studio, click here.

Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Woods was an eight-week MTV talent search that put 12 Broadway hopefuls through a series of challenges to prove they were capable of playing the part. In weekly auditions, contestants had to perform various songs from the show before a panel of judges: Legally Blonde casting director Bernard Telsey, librettist Heather Hach and chorus member Paul Canaan.

In addition to Hanks and Hurlbert landing roles in Legally Blonde on Broadway, fellow contestants Lauren Zakrin and Rhiannon Hansen will be a part of the first national tour of the musical. Zakrin, the youngest contestant on the reality show, will understudy Becky Gulsvig, who stars as Elle Woods on tour, and will be a member of the ensemble. Hansen will play the role of Margot, Elle's best friend, on the tour, which launches in Providence, Rhode Island on September 23.

Legally Blonde also stars Christian Borle as Emmett Forrest, Orfeh as Paulette, Richard H. Blake as Warner Huntington III, Nicolette Hart as Brooke Wyndam, Michael Rupert as Professor Callahan and Kate Shindle as Vivienne Kensington.