Carmen Electra was born in Cincinnati
(Ohio) on April 20, 1972. Of course, back then she was Tara Leigh Patrick,
just a little girl growing up in White Oak, Ohio. At the age of nine, she
was selected for the School for Creative and Performing Arts. While she was
there she took singing lessons, and by her teenage years, she was dancing in
musicals and doing her own choreographing for the school's theater ensemble.
Her goal was to eventually make it out to Los Angeles and get a record deal,
and at age fifteen, she took her first big step. She moved out to
Minneapolis to stay with her sister and half sister, and earned money acting
as a model for the Target department stores. Four years later, she packed up
shop and moved to L.A., changed her name to Carmen Electra, and one week
later, she met the artist formerly known as Prince. For all practical
purposes, she had just been ‘discovered’.
In 1992, after meeting and auditioning
for Prince, Carmen was signed to his Paisley Park Records label. Despite the
fact that Prince took her under his wing (including promotions for her album
in Rolling Stone and on MTV) her first album was a dud. The video for the
single "Go-Go Dancer" was seldom seen on MTV, and when the 12" single hit
the stores in June (1992) it almost went straight to the bargain bin. In
1995, Carmen reinvented herself and appeared on the Nickelodeon show ALL
THAT. In March of 1996, Carmen posed nude for Playboy and did a Playboy
video, PLAYBOY CHEERLEADERS, in which she sings the show stopper ‘2-4-6-8.'
Also in 1996, Carmen hosted MTV's Loveline - only a glimpse of things to
come.
On October 4, 1996, Lisa Berger
(MTV's senior vice president of original programming) announced that Carmen
had been selected to replace Jenny McCarthy on
the MTV show Singled Out. The deal was for at least 65 episodes Since that
announcement, Carmen was signed on to replace
Pamela Anderson on Baywatch, she has appeared in a comic book, appeared as a
national spokesperson for Budweiser. She filmed a small role in the
independent feature Dust and Stardust, a movie about making it and not
making it in Hollywood. In 2000 She played in scary movie and has since been
involved in many low budget movies and "skin flicks". Her relationship with
Dennis Rodman, the wild former pro-basketball player has kept her in the
media's eye, especially with their outrageous escapades and antics.
Status -
Who Knows? Rumored to be on-again off-again with Dennis Rodman again
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