Nee Tara Leigh Patrick, Carmen Electra was born on April 20th, 1972 in White Oak, Ohio. Electra's talents were evident when she was a child, as she attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts at only 9 years old.
In school, Carmen began taking singing lessons and practicing her vocal talents. By the time she was a teenager, she was performing in musicals (as a dancer) and doing her own choreographies. 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.
carmen from model to singer
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 miserably.
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.
electra singled out by mtv
Perhaps Electra's most noted move was posing for Hugh Hefner's magazine in 1996. The following year, Electra was chosen as the next host of MTV's Singled Out, as a replacement for
Jenny McCarthy. Although the deal was for 65 episodes, Carmen was not as popular Jenny and the show eventually fizzled. But she did get another chance as the host of Loveline, also on MTV.
But bigger things lay ahead for Electra -- namely, the role of Lani McKenzie on
Baywatch Hawaii, in the 1997 and 1998 seasons (in the post-
Pamela Anderson days).
Askmen.com
See More Of Electra In Maxim Magazine
