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 (Cherokee) descent. She attended Princeton High School for four years in Sharonville, a suburb of Cincinnati.

She is not related to adult film actress Tera Patrick, born Linda Hopkins Shapiro.

Career highlights
Before moving to Los Angeles in 1991, she lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota 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 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 also created the highly successful Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease series of DVDs which combines classic stripping moves with a low impact workout. Her most recent movie appearance is as Eugene Levy's trophy wife in Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Her acting work is regularly derided by critics; in the Roger Ebert review of the film Dirty Love, he states: "The Carmen Electra character, meanwhile, struts around like a ho in a bad music video, speaking black street talk as if she learned it phonetically, and pulling out a gun and holding it to a man's head because she thinks, obviously, that pulling guns on guys is expected of any authentic black woman. A scene like that would be insulting in any other movie; here it possibly distracts her from doing something even more debasing." 1

Electra achieved considerable notoriety during her on-again, off-again marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman from 1998 to 1999. The wedding to Rodman took place 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[1] 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 and 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." However based on her cleavage in recent films, it appears that the announcement was merely an attempt to generate a titillating rumor.

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

Carmen Electra on an Esquire cover parodying the famous Coppertone girl.An American Vampire Story (1997)
Good Burger (1997)
Starstruck (1998)
The Chosen One: Legend of the Raven (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)
My Boss's Daughter (2003)
Starsky & Hutch (2004)
Mr. 3000 (2004) (Cameo)
Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004)
Dirty Love (2005)
Lil' Pimp (2005) (voice)
Searching for Bobby D (2005)
Getting Played (2005)
Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)
Date Movie (2006)
Upcoming:

Full of It (2006)
Hot Tamale (2006)
National Lampoon's Pledge This! (2006)
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
Beyond Legend: Johnny Kakota (2006)

Carmen Electra (left), Pamela Anderson (center) and Yasmine Bleeth (right) on the cover of a lad mag.
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)
VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock (2000 host)
Cleavage (2002) (documentary) (narrator)
Carmen & Dave: An MTV Love Story (2002)
Livin' Large (host from 2002-2003 and from 2003-2004)
BattleBots (host in 2002)
Dance Fever (2003) (contest judge)
Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding (2003)
Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen + Dave (2004) (miniseries)
Monster Island (2004)
Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model (2004) (miniseries)
Naked Women's Wrestling League (host 2004) (pay-per-view event)
Tripping the Rift (2005-present)
She also has appeared on an episode of The Simpsons, on which she was hosting a game show.

Other Work
Carmen Electra Aerobic Striptease is a five-disc DVD exercise series that combines teaches classic stripping moves with a low impact cardio workout.
Embrace Comic Book written by Carmen Electra for London Night Studios.
Worked exclusively on Jim Wolfe from 10/96-12/97

"Glam Slam Ulysses" Interactive Musical Theatrical Production,” conceived by Prince. Debuted at Prince's legendary Glam Slam L.A. nightclub.