Carrie Ann Inaba

Carrie Ann Inaba (born January 5, 1968) is an American television personality, dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer. She is best known for her work on ABC'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.

Early life Inaba was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating from Punahou School in 1986. She is of Irish, Japanese, and Chinese descent.

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.

Career

Singing In 1986, an 18-year-old Inaba won a talent show in Hawaii. She was then groomed to be a pop star in Japan and given songs to read phonetically in Japanese from a lyric sheet.

Dancing Five multicultural girls were going for their dreams and not afraid. I felt so at home. — Inaba, to People magazine, on her experience as a Fly Girl on In Living Color In later years, Inaba would later regret playing Fook Yu because of the negative stereotypes portrayed.

Inaba has acted (usually as a dancer) in the movies Monster Mash: The Movie, Lord of Illusions, Showgirls, Boys and Girls, Flintstones II, Freak and American Virgin and the television series Jack & Jill and Nikki.

Inaba has appeared on The View, the ABC talent competition Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, and the Fox special Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed. She, along with Bruno Tonioli, has appeared in every season on Dancing with the Stars.

Inaba guest starred as Tina, Hannah's choreographer, in the Hannah Montana episode, "Papa's Got a Brand New Friend".

TV Guide Network announced that it had signed Inaba to anchor its live red carpet coverage, beginning with the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards.

In October 2010, Inaba was named host of the revival of the game show 1 vs. 100 on GSN. After the first season, Inaba announced she would not return to host the show.

Inaba had been a recurring guest co-host for the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk, for the last two seasons. She officially replaced original host Julie Chen as the fifth co-host and moderator permanently, officially debuting on January 2, 2019. On April 26, 2021, Inaba announced she would take a leave of absence from the show. On August 20, 2021, it was confirmed that Inaba would not be returning to the show for the upcoming season.

Choreography

Inaba's choreography has appeared in several television series, including American Idol, She also choreographed the Miss America Pageant for five years. She appeared in the first season of So You Think You Can Dance during the audition stages where she provided choreography for the "choreography round".

Inaba served as an honorary judge at the 2009 USA Dance National Dance Sport Championships.

Film production Inaba is the founder and President of EnterMediArts, Inc., a video production company. She directs, writes, and edits films. Her work includes E! Behind The Scenes Miss America Special, 7th Festival of the Pacific Arts, A Portrait of IVI and Beyond the Dancing Image, along with the short feature film Black Water.

Theater She was a producer for the Broadway show Burn the Floor at New York's Longacre Theatre.

In 2008, Inaba was awarded the Visionary Award by East West Players, the oldest Asian Pacific American theatre company in the United States, for helping to raise "the visibility of the Asian American community through theater, film and television".

Personal life In 2006, she dated Russian dancer Artem Chigvintsev. They met on the set of So You Think You Can Dance. Inaba and Jesse met on online dating site eHarmony in 2009. In an interview with Us Weekly in 2011, Inaba stated that she and Sloan would marry in the summer of that year. In September 2012, a representative for Dancing with the Stars announced that Inaba and Sloan had amicably ended their engagement.

In December 2016, Inaba announced that she and actor Robb Derringer had become engaged after a few months of dating. Derringer proposed on a romantic, secluded beach on the California coastline, which was the site of their first date. In September 2017, they called off the engagement.

Inaba has expressed a great love and respect for animals, supporting organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States and PETA, and launching the Carrie Ann Animal Foundation in 2012. In 2012, Inaba started a new YouTube series about shelter cats, motivated by her love of the creatures. She has had as many as seven rescue animals as pets at the same time.

Health

In a 2011 interview with Prevention, Inaba stated she has a vision of 20/750; which is corrected with eyeglasses and contact lenses. which she thinks began with a neck injury during gymnastics when she was eight years old.

On September 17, 2019, Inaba stated that she had been recently diagnosed with Lupus. In 2019 while on The Talk, Inaba also opened up about struggling with Tourette Syndrome as a child.

On December 10, 2020, it was reported that she tested positive for COVID-19, but later recovered.

In March 2023, Inaba posted on Instagram that she was diagnosed with acute gangrenous appendicitis and was required to undergo an emergency appendectomy.

Philanthropy Inaba has worked with the Entertainment Industry Foundation's campaign, an American volunteer advocacy group, and Drea's Dream, a dance therapy initiative for children who have cancer. She's also a founding member of Nigel Lythgoe's dance education organization, the Dizzy Feet Foundation. After her mother's battle with cancer in 2008, both women began to participate in the EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women.

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes 1993 Rhythm & Jam Dancer TV movie 1995 Lord of Illusions Dancer 1995 Showgirls Goddess Dancer 1995 Monster Mash: The Movie Singer/Dancer #2 Direct to-VHS 1999 Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Felicity's Dancer #1 1999 American Virgin Hiromi Direct to-DVD 2000 Boys and Girls Dancer 2002 Austin Powers in Goldmember Fook Yu

Television

Year Film Role Notes 1990–1992 In Living Color Fly Girl 68 episodes 1999 Jack & Jill Dancer Episode: Fear and Loathing in Gotham 2000–2001 Nikki Dancer 4 episodes 2005–present Dancing with the Stars Judge 2009 Hannah Montana Tina Episode: Papa's Got a Brand New Friend 2010–2011 1 vs. 100 Host 2017–2021 The Talk Herself (co-host) co-host; 47 episodes (guest co-host)

Footnotes