A stunning, sexy star with an enviable array of dance moves who has built an increasingly high-profile career primarily on her considerable erotic appeal while maintaining a nice-girl-next-door persona, Carmen Electra effectively transformed herself from pop star protégé and Playboy model into a pop culture phenomenon.
The petite brunette with the arresting eyes was born Tara Patrick in the suburbs of Cincinnati and began preparing for show biz early, taking dance classes as early as age five and dreaming of hoofing on Broadway. He parents supported her by enrolling her in a performing arts school, and immediately upon her graduation in 1990 she relocated to Los Angeles. Dancing in an L.A. nightclub she caught the eye of a talent scout and landed an audition with the hugely successful pop singer Prince (actually, at that point, the Artist Formally Known as Prince), who was looking to assemble an all-girl rap group for his record label. Although he didn't tap her for the group, Prince later wrote a song for her demo album and rechristened her as Carmen Electra ("You look like a Carmen," he told her, reportedly thinking of the Bizet opera and adding the heroine of the Greek tragedy as her new surname). Although she flopped with her eponymous 1992 debut album (produced by her purple-minded mentor) but later scored in 1996 by baring it all for the pages of Playboy and racking up guest spots on several TV series, including a stint on "Baywatch Nights."
After succeeding raucous former Playmate Jenny McCarthy as co-host of MTV's popular dating game show "Singled Out" in the spring of 1997 (she also had a brief stint co-hosting the video network's late night sex and dating advice show "Loveline" that same year, she was tapped to fill the void left by a departing Pamela Anderson on the syndicated "Baywatch" that fall, sizzling in her red bathing suit for one season as Lani McKensie, despite some swimming difficulties. While "Baywatch" prompted Electra's pop cultural "babe quotient" go through the roof, the overcrowded cast left little room for Electra the actress to hone her performing skills. After leaving the series, she would go on to guest star—often as herself—in several popular TV series, including "The Simpsons," "Just Shoot Me," "The Drew Carey Show" and "Mad TV." She also starred in her first film, the C-grade thriller "The Chosen One: Legend of the Raven" (1998) as a Native American (Electra is of Irish, German, and Cherokee descent) whose is possessed by a supernatural force of good, unleashing powers and an unquenchable sexual energy--Despite its many flaws, the film made the most of Electra's gift for gyration and her decided lack of inhibition when it came to nudity.
By 1998, Electra had veered into Zsa Zsa Gabor territory as a Hollywood persona that was known less for her body of work than her body, becoming a regular fixture on the covers and in photo layouts of the then-fresh wave of "laddie" magazines such as Maxim, Stuff and FHM. When her clothes were kept on, her outlandish wardrobe and heavy makeup frequently landed her on many publications' worst-dressed lists. However, that year her erratic, on-again, off-again relationship with the outlandish and eccentric NBA star Dennis Rodman would earn her the most notoriety: the couple was married in a spur-of-the-moment Las Vegas ceremony, but days later Rodman announced he was intoxicated at the time and filed for an annulment. The couple subsequently reconciled but then had a very public physical altercation that resulted in their arrests in Miami and the ultimate dissolution of their five-month union, which had been a staple of many a late night talk show monologue.
As her personal life turned into a media circus, her professional life was gaining momentum: In an attempt to save the struggling "Hyperion Bay" series, The WB brought Electra aboard in January 1999 as a cutthroat, eager-to-claw-her-way-to-the-top vixen, moving away from the earnest exploration of thorny relationship issues in favor of lots of lingerie (and an occasional plot). Her efforts, however, were in vain as the network ceased production on the series after the producers fulfilled the initial order. She also appeared opposite Mackenzie Astin in the little seen but surprisingly entertaining indie comedy "The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human" (1999) as part of a couple whose relationship is studied by alien observers. The actress would be cast in her most high-profile role--one which showcased her willingness to tweak her own image--when she played a lingerie-clad slasher victim Drew Decker (a satire of Drew Barrymore's "Scream" role) in the comedy "Scary Movie" (2000). She also appeared in a trimmed-down cameo as the whip-wielding dominatrix Mistress Moira in the teen-skewing comedy "Get Over It" (2001).
Roles in a slate of lesser films—"Sol Goode" (2001), "Whacked!" (2002), "Rent Control" (2002) and the long-delayed bomb "My Boss' Daughter" (2003), which was released solely because of Ashton Kutcher's burgeoning popularity—followed before the actress spent a season as a sideline correspondent on Comedy Central's robot vs. robot competition "Battlebots" in 2002. She again donned her red swimsuit for the reunion telepic "Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding" (NBC, 2003), posed for a second top-selling Playboy shoot and had a cameo as a Hollywood celebrity in "Uptown Girls" (2003). Meanwhile, she continued to generate interest in her personal life, with a lengthy and public engagement to Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chilli Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro (the couple married in November 2003, with the entire wedding process and ceremony filmed for broadcast by MTV on the 2004 series "Till Death Do Us Part"), a glamorous makeover, her own strip aerobics DVD and a headlining association with the hot Hollywood dance troupe the Pussycat Dolls, a retro-burlesque-style collection of the music industry's top dancers, choreographers and celebrity guest performers (including Christina Applegate, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Charlize Theron, Jaime Pressly and Pamela Anderson).
Next for the actress was a turn opposite Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in the 2004 big-screen comedy version of the 1970s cop drama "Starsky & Hutch." After voicing Honeysack in the cheapie animated comedy, “Lil’ Pimp” (2005), and appearing in the little known romantic comedy “Dirty Love” (2005), Electra joined the original cast for the sequel, “Cheaper By the Dozen” (2005), starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the overburdened parents of a family of twelve. Meanwhile, she spent 2005 working on more projects, including “Nothing But the Truth” (lensed 2005), a teenage comedy about a 17-year-old habitual liar who wakes up one day to suddenly discover all his lies have come true, and, of course, “Scary Movie 4” (2006), the latest installment to the inexplicably successful horror-comedy franchise, supplying a bit of toilet humor in a spoof on M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” (2004).