Carmen Electra (born April 20, 1972) is an American model, television personality, actress and singer, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as Tara Leigh Patrick to a family of Irish, German, and Native American descent. (She is not related to adult film actress Tera Patrick, born Linda Hopkins Shapiro.) She attended Princeton High School for four years in the suburbs of Cincinnati.

 

Career highlights

Before moving to Los Angeles (1991) she lived in Minneapolis, MN and worked for Target Corporation. After moving to California she met singer Prince (a Minneapolis native), who persuaded her to change her name to Carmen Electra. Soon after, she signed a recording contract with Paisley Park Records, Prince's company, marking the start of a short-lived and unsuccessful singing career.

In 1995, Electra started appearing in various television programs. Then in May of 1996 she appeared in Playboy magazine. This led to an increasing role as a television personality on various shows, including regular roles on Baywatch and MTV's Singled Out.

Electra has appeared in several films, such as Good Burger (1997), The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999), the horror spoof Scary Movie (2000), and the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch (2004). She also regularly performed with the exotic dance troupe The Pussycat Dolls.

Electra achieved considerable notoriety during her on-again, off-again marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman from 1998 to 1999. Electra's current husband, musician Dave Navarro, was formerly the lead guitarist of the rock bands Jane's Addiction and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. The couple documented their courtship and marriage on an MTV reality show in 2004 entitled Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave.

Discography

• Carmen Electra, 1993

Filmography

• An American Vampire Story (1997)
• Good Burger (1997)
• The Chosen One: Legend of the Raven (1998)
• Starstruck (1998)
• The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human (1999)
• Christmas Vacation 2000 (1999)
• The Great White Dope (2000) (short subject)
• Scary Movie (2000)
• Welcome to Hollywood (2000) (documentary)
• Sol Goode (2001)
• Perfume (2001)
• Get Over It (2001)
• Rent Control (2002)
• Naked Movie (2002)
• Whacked! (2002)
• Uptown Girls (2003) (Cameo)
• My Boss's Daughter (2003)
• Starsky & Hutch (2004)
• Mr. 3000 (2004) (Cameo)
• Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004)
• Dirty Love (2005)
• Searching for Bobby D (2005)
• National Lampoon's Pledge This! (2005) (Cameo) (currently in post-production)
• Hot Tamale (2005) (currently in post-production)
• Getting Played (2005) (currently in post-production)
• Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005) (currently filming)
• Nothing But The Truth (2006) (currently in post-production)

TV Work

• Singled Out (host in 1997)
• Loveline (host in 1997)
• Baywatch (cast member from 1997-1998)
• Baywatch: White Thunder at Glacier Bay (1998)
• Hyperion Bay (cast member in 1999)
• Electra's Guy (2000)
• Carmen & Dave: An MTV Love Story (2002)
• Livin' Large (host from 2002-2003 and from 2003-2004)
• Dance Fever (2003) (miniseries)
• Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003)
• Punk'd (2004, one episode, see Dave Navarro)
• Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen + Dave (2004) (miniseries)
• Monster Island (2004)
• Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model (2004) (miniseries)
• Tripping the Rift (2005, Voice of Six in the second season of the US version of the series, replacing Gina Gershon)

Other Work

• Embrace Comic Book written by Carmen Electra for London Night Studios.