Tia Carrere Biography:

Born on January 2, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Tia Carrere is a part-Filipino, part-Chinese and part-Spanish actress who initially aspired to become a famous singer. She auditioned for Star Search in 1985, but was eliminated during her first round. Still, she managed to catch the eye of a local producer’s parents, and was immediately cast in the low-budget film, Zombie Nightmare. After making her film debut, Carrere moved to Los Angeles where she was given a title role in the popular and long-running soap, General Hospital. From there, Carrere went on to appear in many other television series like MacGyver and Married… With Children. She made a huge impact on the big screen with her portrayal of Cassandra in the highly-popular films Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2. Her other film credits include True Lies, The Immortals and High School High. In 1999, Carrere landed a starring role in the adventure series, Relic Hunter and in 2002, lent her voice to the animated character, Nani, in the popular Disney film, Lilo and Stitch.

Carrere re-appeared in television in 2005 when she became one of the “stars” invited to compete on the second season of Dancing with the Stars. She and her dance partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, made it all the way to week 5, where they gave a not-so-impressive performance of the Samba. To make matters worse for Carrere, she fell on her bottom several times, which ultimately led the viewers to cast their votes for the other teams.



Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Tia Carrere

(Photos courtesy of ABC)