Layla El

Layla El (born 25 June 1977) is an English retired professional wrestler, dancer and model.

Layla El was born in London, England on 25 June 1977.

Her paternal grandparents were Spanish, and she is also of Moroccan descent.

She attended a performing arts college in London.

El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines.

Afterwards, she joined the National Basketball Association's Miami Heat franchise, where she danced for two years beginning in 2004.

As part of the Miami Heat dance troupe, she received a championship ring.

During this time, she appeared on-stage with John Legend as one of his backup dancers.

She also danced for P. Diddy and Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.

She is best known for her tenure with WWE from 2006 to 2015, where she performed under the mononymous ring name Layla.

She danced for Carnival Cruise Lines, the Miami Heat franchise of the National Basketball Association, and Kanye West during his performance at the MTV Video Music Awards before becoming a contestant on the 2006 edition of WWE's Diva Search, which she won to earn a contract with the company.

El's first foray into professional wrestling occurred when her trainer suggested she try out for the $250,000 WWE Diva Search contest in 2006.

After a casting call, she was selected as one of the finalists.

During the contest, she won two individual competitions, an obstacle course and a talent competition, before winning the overall competition on 16 August.

She made her first official WWE appearance at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view in a backstage segment with several other Divas.

During the segment, the other women initially taunted and teased her before revealing that "it was all in fun" and part of an "initiation".

The week after SummerSlam, El made her debut as a member of the SmackDown!

brand in an interview with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin—although he did not allow her the chance to say much, spending most of the time talking about himself.

Subsequently, she did not appear on television for almost a month, reappearing on the 22 September episode of SmackDown! and getting into a confrontation with Kristal and Jillian Hall.

At October's No Mercy pay-per-view event, she embarrassed The Miz by tricking him into getting a lap dance from Big Dick Johnson while he was blindfolded and expecting it to be from her as a birthday gift.

On 20 October, Layla participated in a dance contest with the other SmackDown!

Divas, and was chosen as the winner by the judges, Nick and Aaron Carter.

Despite this, The Miz, who was acting as emcee, declared Kristal the winner.

The following week, Layla made her in-ring debut in a Diva's battle royal.

The match ended in controversial fashion when she was pulled from the ring apron by The Miz, allowing Kristal to win.

The following week, Layla teamed with Big Vito in a loss to The Miz and Kristal in a mixed tag team match.

Continuing to feud with Kristal, Layla had her singles match debut on the 1 December episode of SmackDown!, when she lost to Kristal.

In her final match for the SmackDown!

brand, Layla teamed with Ashley to defeat Kristal and Jillian Hall in a tag team match on 22 December.

Initially appearing on the SmackDown brand, El moved to ECW in January 2007.

There, she formed the Extreme Exposé dance troupe with Kelly Kelly and Brooke Adams.

The following month, Layla was moved to the ECW brand, debuting on 23 January 2007.

She joined Brooke and Kelly Kelly to form Extreme Exposé.

The trio performed a weekly dance segment on ECW, choreographed by Layla, for the next several months.

In 2008, she was drafted to the Raw brand, where she began managing William Regal.

The following year, she returned to SmackDown and formed an alliance with Michelle McCool known as LayCool.

In May 2010, she won the WWE Women's Championship for the first time.

She is the first British woman and the first Diva Search winner to hold the championship, and was the final champion when the title was retired in 2010.

In April 2012, she won the WWE Divas Championship upon her return from a year-long absence due to injury, and held it until September that year.

She then wrestled for the next three years until her retirement in 2015.