Kira Mengistu is one of the contestants on The Bachelor season 26 who really stood out to Bachelor Nation despite her limited screentime on Clayton Echard's season thus far. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an uptick of health care professionals being cast on shows in the Bachelor franchise. Of note, Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams' season of The Bachelorette featured anesthesiologist Joe Park and registered nurse Noah Erb. Matt James' season then featured ICU nurse Kim Li and pharmacist Magi Tareke.
Over the course of Michelle Young's season of The Bachelorette, Clayton was introduced as a medical sales representative and got picked by producers to become the next Bachelor in 2022. Surprisingly, Clayton's season includes quite a few health care professionals in the cast. Season 26 contestants include registered nurse Rianna Hockaday, neonatal nurse Lindsay Dobbs, pediatric nurse Hailey Malles, surgical unit nurse Teddi Wright, and ICU nurse Gabby Windey.
At the grand premiere of The Bachelor season 26, fans also got to meet physician Kira Mengistu as one of the cast members looking for love. Kira is 32 years old and resides in Philadelphia, PA. Per LinkedIn, Kira works as a senior physician in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She got a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and then earned her doctor of medicine degree from the University of North Carolina back in 2016. Prior to her job at UPenn, Kira worked as a physician for Cambridge Health Alliance. According to ABC, Kira loves eating nachos, taught herself to write hieroglyphics, and has two cats named Olga and Oksana.
As someone who has been working really hard all her life, Kira wants to experience the full Bachelor journey and potentially find love at the end of this process. She described her ideal man as being "mature, social, and always up for trying new things." She also likes guys who can be "corny" at times. On Instagram, Bachelor Nation can start following Kira at @kiramengistu. As of this writing, she has more than 4,200 followers. Kira has shared not only her professional side but also her social life on IG. Moreover, Kira has plenty of modeling photos taken by professional photographers as well.
Bachelor Nation fans on social media have been very curious to learn more about Kira as they watch her journey on Clayton's season. While they wait to see more of her, Bachelor fans can keep up with Kira on Instagram. She survived the first rose ceremony of season 26, but viewers will have to tune in to see how far she gets.
The Bachelor season 26 airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Source: Kira Mengistu/Instagram, Kira Mengistu/LinkedIn, ABC