Carmen Electra

Carmen Electra (born Tara Leigh Patrick, April 20, 1972) is an American actress, model, singer, and media personality.

Electra was born Tara Leigh Patrick on April 20, 1972, in Sharonville, Ohio (a Cincinnati suburb), to Harry Patrick, a guitarist and entertainer, and his wife Patricia (d. 1998), a singer.

Electra attended Ann Weigel Elementary School and studied dance under Gloria J. Simpson at Dance Artists studio in Western Hills until age nine, when she enrolled in the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), a magnet arts school in the Cincinnati Public School District.

There, she was an older classmate of Nick Lachey, with whom she appeared in a production of Peter Pan.

Electra started her professional career in 1990 as a dancer at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio, performing in the show "It's Magic", one of the more popular shows in the park's history.

The role lasted a year and helped to establish her as a sex symbol, which has lasted since the late 1990s and the 2000s.

In the same year, she began hosting MTV's Singled Out.

In 1991, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she met singer and songwriter Prince.

She began her career as a singer after moving to Minneapolis where she met Prince who produced her self-titled debut studio album, released in 1993.

Soon after, Electra signed a recording contract with Prince's Paisley Park Records and made her singing debut with her self-titled debut studio album in 1993, and would be her only album release.

During her time at Paisley Park Records, she officially became known as Carmen Electra.

Electra began glamour modeling in 1996 with appearances in Playboy magazine, before relocating to Los Angeles, where she had her breakthrough portraying Lani McKenzie in the action drama series Baywatch (1997–1998).

In May 1996, she was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, the first of several.

In 1997, Electra hosted the MTV dating show Singled Out and made her film debut in the comedy horror American Vampire.

Her other film credits include Good Burger (1997), Get Over It (2001), Starsky & Hutch (2004), Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005), Dirty Love (2005), Hot Tamale (2006), and I Want Candy (2007).

Electra, who told People in 1997 that she had "wanted to dance on Broadway," graduated from Princeton High School in Sharonville in 1990, having transferred there from SCPA two years prior.

Additionally, Electra attended and graduated from Barbizon Modeling and Acting School in Cincinnati.

Electra claims to be of Cherokee, German, and Irish descent, and was very close to her family.

She said of her mother, "My mom was my rock," and described her older sister Debbie as being "like a second mother to me".

After Debbie moved to Illinois, Electra said her life "revolved around my mom. She was my best friend, in my life 24/7 whether I wanted her there or not."

Electra moved to Los Angeles, where she made her acting debut in the independent comedy horror film American Vampire (1997).

In 1997 she was cast as Lani McKenzie in the American drama series Baywatch, for which she achieved her breakthrough.

In 1999, she appeared in the Bloodhound Gang's music video of "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope".

That same year she appeared in the film The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human.

Electra was featured in Playboy four more times: June 1997, December 2000, April 2003, and the January 2009 anniversary issue.

She was on the cover of the last three of these issues.

In 2000, Electra starred in the horror-comedy parody film Scary Movie as Drew Decker, a character parodied after Casey Becker from Scream (1996).

The film was a commercial success, and spawned the Scary Movie franchise which attained a cult following.

Electra reprised the role of Lani McKenzie in the 2003 television film Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

In 2004, she co-starred in the MTV reality series 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave, with her then-husband Dave Navarro. Electra has achieved recognition for her work in parody films, including Scary Movie (2000), Scary Movie 4 (2006), Date Movie (2006), Epic Movie (2007), Meet the Spartans (2008), and Disaster Movie (2008).

Electra has also occasionally worked as a dancer, most notably with The Pussycat Dolls, as a featured guest of the group on VH1 Divas 2004.

In 2004, she appeared in the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch (2004), which was a commercial success.

For the role, she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss.

Electra appeared as characters in the video game Def Jam: Fight for New York and as one of the celebrity challenges in the video game ESPN NFL 2K5, both also in 2004.

She occasionally performed with The Pussycat Dolls, most notably as a featured guest of the group when they shared the stage with artists like Patti LaBelle and Debbie Harry on VH1 Divas 2004.

In 2005, Electra starred in the family comedy film Cheaper by the Dozen 2, which received negative reviews from critics, although it was a moderate box-office success and Electra's performance was praised, with Andrea Gronvall of The Chicago Reader writing that she was "the most winning performer of the bunch".

Also in 2005, she appeared in an episode of House in which she portrayed herself as an injured golfer and farmer.

That same year, she joined the voice cast of the animated series Tripping the Rift, replacing Gina Gershon as the voice of the android "Six".

She later starred as Holly in Scary Movie 4 (2006), the fourth film in the franchise, which holds the box-office record for the best opening on Easter weekend.

In 2006 she appeared in Date Movie.