Carmen Electra

Carmen Electra

Before she changed her name to Carmen Electra at the suggestion of Prince, she was known by a different name all together: Tara Leigh Patrick (born April 20, 1972). Since her move to California, Electra has been on the fast track to fame, with a short lived singing career, a spread in Playboy, and then coming to feature on several programs, including "Baywatch", and "Singled Out", Electra has etched herself a spot as an American sex symbol, actress, and television personality.

Early Life

Electra was born in Sharonville, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, to Patricia, a vocalist, and Harry Patrick, an entertainer and guitarist. Is the youngest of five children in her family. Her heritage is Irish, German, and Cherokee.

Electra attended the School For Creative And Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Princeton High School in Sharonville and also attended, very briefly, Walnut Hills High School.

Model to Singer

Her ultimate ambition was to go to Los Angeles and sign a record deal, and by the tender age of only 15, Carmen was on her way to realizing her dream. Electra decided to relocate to Minneapolis, where she resided with her sister and made a living as a model for Target department stores. After four years, the aspiring star moved to Los Angeles and only one week later ran into musical genius Prince, who decided that she should change her name to Carmen Electra.

Prince liked Carmen's look and style, and he signed her on to his label, Paisley Park Records, in 1992. Unfortunately, despite all of Prince's efforts in helping Carmen by promoting her and her new album, her music career failed.

Her single "Go-Go Dancer" hardly got any airtime on MTV, and when the single hit store shelves in 1992, it didn't sell well at all.

Movie Career

In 1995, Electra started appearing in various television programs doing bit parts. Then, in May of 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) and "MTV's Singled Out". She returned to "Baywatch" for the 2003 reunion movie, Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding.

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 also appeared in Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 (2006), Epic Movie (2007), and the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch (2004). She has also made cameo appearances as herself in the comedy American Dreamz. She regularly performed with the exotic dance troupe The Pussycat Dolls. Electra also created the highly successful Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease series of DVDs, which combines classic stripping moves with a low impact workout.

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". In late 2006, Carmen began to be featured in commercials by Taco Bell.

Electra is the current 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 videogame, ESPN NFL 2K5, along with Steve-O, Jamie Kennedy, and others.

Private Life

Electra achieved notoriety during her on-again, off-again marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman from 1998 to 1999. The wedding to Rodman took place at Little Chapel of the Flowers in Las Vegas, Nevada. Later, she had a brief affair with Tommy Lee, the ex-husband of Pamela Anderson. Borrowing another page from fellow "Baywatch" companion Anderson's publicity playbook, Electra was quoted in August 2004 that she was thinking of having her breast implants removed. She told World Entertainment News Network, "I had nice breasts to begin with. They weren't the biggest boobs, (but) I just think it was really trendy (to have implants) at a certain time, so I decided to do it. There are moments when I think it's kind of silly and I wish I would've just stayed natural." On "Baywatch," she commented that "I never had my own name on a bathing suit on 'Baywatch.' I was always given one that said Pamela (Anderson) or Yasmine (Bleeth). I earned my own suit, at the end of the season, which I now have framed."

On November 22, 2003, Electra married Dave Navarro, former lead guitarist for the rock band Jane's Addiction. The couple documented their courtship and marriage in an MTV celebreality show called 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave. In 2006, Electra claimed that when she was eight years old she had a lesbian crush on Joan Jett. She remembers especially lusting after Jett while watching the music video of "Do You Wanna Touch Me" where Jett opens a trenchcoat to reveal her bikini clad body. Electra claimed to also lust after supermodel Kate Moss: "I fancy Kate Moss. She has the best style. People need to give her a break. Yeah, I'd love to meet Kate. You can't deny her beauty and her sexuality." On July 17, 2006, she and Navarro announced their separation. Their rep later confirmed their separation to Star Magazine. Electra filed for divorce on August 10, 2006.

Charity Work

Tragically, Electra’s mother died of a brain tumor in 1998. She had an older sister, Debbie, who died from a heart attack, also in 1998. As a result of her mother's death from a brain tumor, Electra cofounded Head to Hollywood with Ken Baker. It is "[a]n organization that brings brain-tumor patients and their families to Tinseltown for a VIP experience.”