Carrie Ann Inaba
Carrie Ann Inaba (born January 5, 1968)[1] is an American television personality, dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer. She is best known for her work on ABC TV's Dancing with the Stars for which she has served as a judge since 2005. She co-hosted and moderated the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk from 2019 to 2021. She started her career as a singer in Japan, but became best known for her dancing, introducing herself to American audiences as one of the original Fly Girls on the Fox sketch comedy series In Living Color from 1990 to 1992.
Carrie Ann Inaba
Television judge, talk/game show host, dancer, choreographer, actress, singer
1986–present
5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
Artem Chigvintsev (2006–08)
Jesse Sloan (2009–2012)
Robb Derringer (2016–2017)
Early life[edit]
Inaba was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2] graduating from Punahou School in 1986.[3] She is of Irish, Japanese, and Chinese descent.[4][5] Her first dance instruction was at three years old in a "creative movement" class, where children danced on their own with scarves.[6] As a child, she would dance in her backyard that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.[5]
She attended Sophia University and University of California, Irvine before graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. degree in world arts and cultures.[7]
Career[edit]
Singing[edit]
In 1986, an 18-year-old Inaba won a talent show in Hawaii.[4] She was then groomed to be a pop star in Japan and given songs to read phonetically in Japanese from a lyric sheet.[4] Even though her first single made the Top 50, she "realized it has nothing to do with how artistic you are. Your face becomes a logo they sell."[4] Inaba lived in Tokyo from 1986 to 1988 and was a popular singer.[6] She released three singles, "Party Girl" (backed with "China Blue"), "Be Your Girl" (backed with "6½ Capezio"), and "Yume no Senaka" (backed with "Searching") and hosted weekly radio and television series.[8]