Tara Leigh Patrick (aka Carmen Electra), was born on April 20, 1972 in Sharonville, Ohio. The daughter of Patricia, a singer, and Harry Patrick, an entertainer and guitarist, Carmen’s talents were evident at a very young age when she attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts at only 9 years old. This American singer, dancer, television personality, actress, model and sex symbol is truly a beautiful and sexy celebrity with a multitude of talents under her belt. She graduated from Princeton High School in Sharonville. She began taking singing lessons and practiced her vocal and dancing talents while studying. By the time she was a teenager, she was already performing in musicals and doing her own choreographies. Her dream is to make it big in Los Angeles and sign a record deal.
Carmen moved to California in 1991 where she met musician Prince while auditioning for an all-girl rap group. Prince recognized Carmen’s appeal and talent so he decided to alter her image and started with her name. As a marketing decision, Prince persuaded her to change her name to Carmen Electra and signed the budding singer to his own record label, Paisley Park Records. Despite Prince’s efforts of promoting Carmen’s debut album, the record did not make it big and her music career got off to a bad start. Her single “Go-Go Dancer” hardly got any airtime and did not sell well when it hit the record stores. Because of this, her singing career did not prosper and Carmen moved on to other things.
Not daunted by her short-lived musical career, Carmen decided to make the most of her good looks and voluptuous body and posed for Playboy magazine when the opportunity arose in 1996. The move proved to be a career-changing decision and catapulted her into television. Her exposure in the magazine got her recognition from MTV and the show chose her to be Jenny McCarthy’s replacement for its popular show “Singled Out”. However, the series was again short-lived because Carmen was not as recognized as Jenny McCarthy, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year.
But bigger things are ahead of Carmen’s young show business career. She landed the role of Lani McKenzie in the popular Baywatch Hawaii television program. She was a fixture on the show in its 1997-1998 post-Pamela Anderson seasons. She also got a part in the made-for-TV movie adaptation of the series, “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding” in 2003. Other movie credits include the horror movie spoof “Scary Movie” in 2000 and it’s fourth installment, “Scary Movie 4” in 2006. More film roles kept coming in for this sexy actress. She appeared in “Epic Movie”, “Date Movie”, and “Cheaper by the Dozen 2” starring alongside Steve Martin and Eugene Levy. She got a more significant role in the remake of the 1970’s classic TV show, “Starsky and Hutch” opposite Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Amy Smart and Baywatch co-star Brande Roderick. The movie hit it big at the box-office and gained Carmen more exposure and big-screen experience.
Since then, Carmen was featured in a comic book and was a national spokesperson for Budweiser. She has also launched her own sexy workout five-disc DVD series and became a featured performer in The Pussycat Dolls’ shows. She is also a playable character in the video game Def Jam: Fight for New York and is one of the celebrity challenges in the game ESPN NFL 2K5, along with Steve-O and Jamie Kennedy. She continued to appear in music videos such as the Bloodhound Gang’s video for “The Inevitable Return of the Great White Dope” and in commercials and print ads for establishments like Taco Bell and Ritz Camera Centers, becoming the current spokesmodel for the latter. Carmen has also lent her voice to the animated series “Tripping the Rift”, replacing Gina Gershon as the voice of the sexy android “Six”. In 2005, she started the Naked Women’s Wrestling League, serving as the commissioner for the professional wrestling promotion.
The sexy actress has been involved with a number of rock and pop star musicians over the years. Her first relationship was with Prince. Although the relationship was short-lived, Prince nonetheless played a big part in Carmen’s discovery and eventual popularity and success. Carmen was also romantically involved with Cypress Hill frontman B-Real from 1995 to 1998. The couple revealed on “The Howard Stern Show” that B-Real bought Carmen her breast implants. The actress gained publicity when she married controversial basketball superstar Dennis Rodman in 1998. The couple divorced a short time later and Carmen had a brief affair with Pamela Anderson’s ex-husband Tommy Lee, another rock star famous for being the drummer of 80’s rock band Motley Crue.
On November 22, 2003, Carmen married Dave Navarro, former lead guitarist for the bands Jane’s Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers. MTV documented the pair’s wedding through a reality show very much like the Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey show for the same network. “Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave” was about the months of planning leading up to the couple’s November 2003 wedding. The show debuted in January of 2004. The wedding ended in a divorce though; the couple officially separated in February 2003.
Carmen’s evident preference for rock stars continues with her current boyfriend, Rob Patterson, the live guitarist for the popular rock band Korn. She recently got an “R” tattoo behind her ear.
The famous actress is known for her sexuality but that image does not affect her at all as she supports various charities like Elevate Hope, a charity which supports abused and abandoned children, and the Hollyrod Foundation which provides medical, physical and emotional support to those suffering from debilitating life circumstances especially Parkinson’s Disease. Carmen also organized a fundraiser for Head to Hollywood, a non-profit organization which supports brain tumor survivors.
