Nee Tara Leigh Patrick, Carmen Electra was born on April 20, 1972 in White Oak, Ohio. Carmen's talents were evident when she was a child, as she was to attend the School for Creative and Performing Arts at only nine 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. By the tender age of only fifteen, Carmen was on her way to realizing her dream.

Carmen decided to relocate to Minneapolis, where she resided with her sister, and she made a living as a clothes model for Target department stores. After four years went by, Carmen decided to move to Los Angeles, change her then name Tara Leigh Patrick to Carmen Electra, and only one week after doing all this, Carmen ran into musical talent, Prince.

Since Prince liked Carmen's appearance and style, he signed her to a Paisley Park Records label deal 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 the store shelves in 1992, it didn't sell well at all. Three years later, Carmen had renewed her flailing image and appeared on the Nickelodeon show entitled All That.

Perhaps Carmen's most noted move was her posing for Play boy in 1996. As well, she did a Play boy video entitled Play boy Cheerleaders, and Carmen shows off her "musical" talents by singing "2-4-6-8". That same year, Carmen began guest hosting on MTV's Loveline.

A couple of months later, Lisa Berger, MTV's vice president, announced that Carmen was chosen to be Jenny McCarthy's replacement on the show Singled Out. Although the deal was for 65 episodes, Carmen's popularity was not that of Jenny's and the show eventually fizzled. Considering Carmen was a voluptuous and beautiful woman, it was only natural that Baywatch came knocking on Carmen's door. She came on as a replacement for Pamela Andersonand did a splendid job (no, seriously). Since then, Carmen has appeared in a comic book, was the national spokesperson for Budweiser beer, and she appeared in the 2000 sleeper comedy hit of the year Scary Movie.

On the personal front, Carmen's relationship with Dennis Rodmanhas become a breeding ground for tabloids as well as the rest of the media. The two tied the knot in 1997 and separated only seven days later - with Rodman claiming that he wasn't in his right state of mind at the time. They ultimately got an annulment. Although the two have been arrested for fighting in a hotel, the two still remain together despite all the antics and rumors that are continuously spread about them. Besides Rodman, Carmen has been romantically linked to Tommy Lee, Cypress Hill's B-Real and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst.