CARMEN ELECTRA PHOTO

Carmen Electra was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Patricia, a singer, and Harry, an entertainer and guitarist. She attended Ann Weigel Elementary School and then studied dance at Dance Artists dance studio under Gloria J. Simpson, in Western Hills, a suburb of Cincinnati. Her mother died of a brain tumor in 1998. Her older sister Debbie died from a heart attack, also in 1998. Carmen graduated from Princeton High School in Sharonville. She has Irish, German, and Cherokee ancestry.

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

She moved to California in 1994, where she met Prince while auditioning for an all-girl rap group. Prince persuaded her to change her name to Carmen Electra and record a solo album. Soon after, she signed a recording contract with Prince's company Paisley Park Records, marking the start of a short-lived singing career.

In 1995, Carmen Electra started appearing in television programs. In May 1996 she was featured in a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine, the first of several. This exposure led to higher profile television appearances, including Baywatch (cast member from 1997-1998, as Leilani "Lani" McKenzie) and MTV's Singled Out. She returned to Baywatch for the 2003 reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

Carmen Electra was featured in Playboy the magazine four more times, with her second appearance in June 1997, third in December 2000, fourth in April 2003 and her fifth in the January 2009 anniversary issue. She subsequently was on the cover three times, in December 2000, April 2003 and on the 55th anniversary Issue in January 2009. In the Playboy Cyber Club, she was the first woman invited to be a celebrity guest photographer; she chose Playmate Jennifer Walcott as her subject model.

Carmen Electra has appeared in films such as Good Burger (1997), The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999), the horror spoof Scary Movie (2000) and also appeared in Meet the Spartans (2008), Scary Movie 4 (2006), Epic Movie (2007), Date Movie (2006), the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch (2004) and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. She won an MTV Movie Award (best kiss) for Starsky & Hutch.

In 1999, she appeared in the Bloodhound Gang's music video of "The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope." In 2005, she joined the voice cast of the animated series Tripping the Rift, replacing Gina Gershon as the voice of the sexy android "Six". Also in 2005, she began the Naked Women's Wrestling League, acting as the commissioner for the professional wrestling promotion. In late 2006, Carmen began to be featured in commercials by Taco Bell.

Carmen Electra is the spokesmodel for Ritz Camera Centers, appearing in their television and print ads with CEO David Ritz. She is featured in some video spoofs of Lonelygirl15 that are advertising Epic Movie.

She is a playable character in the video game Def Jam: Fight for New York and is one of the celebrity challenges in the video game ESPN NFL 2K5, along with Steve-O, Jamie Kennedy and others.