Carmen Electra (born April 20 , 1972 ) is an American model , television personality, actress and singer, born in Cincinnati, Ohio , as Tara Leigh Patrick to a family of Irish , German , and Native American ( Cherokee ) descent. (She is not related to adult film actress Tera Patrick , born Linda Hopkins Shapiro.) She attended Princeton High School for four years in the suburbs of Cincinnati.

Before moving to Los Angeles ( 1991 ) she lived in Minneapolis , MN and worked for Target Corporation . After moving to California she met singer Prince (a Minneapolis native), who persuaded her to change her name to Carmen Electra. Soon after, she signed a recording contract with Paisley Park Records , Prince's company, marking the start of a short-lived but not very successful singing career.

In 1995 , Electra started appearing in various television programs. Then in May of 1996 she appeared in Playboy magazine. This led to an increasing role as a television personality on various shows, including regular roles on Baywatch and MTV 's Singled Out .

Electra has appeared in several films, such as Good Burger ( 1997 ), The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human ( 1999 ), the horror spoof Scary Movie (2000), and the remake of the 1970s TV show Starsky & Hutch ( 2004 ). She also regularly performed with the exotic dance troupe The Pussycat Dolls . Her most recent movie appearance is a small role in Cheaper by the Dozen 2 .

Electra achieved considerable notoriety during her on-again, off-again marriage to basketball star Dennis Rodman from 1998 to 1999 . Electra's current husband, musician Dave Navarro , was formerly the lead guitarist of the rock bands Jane's Addiction and The Red Hot Chili Peppers . The couple documented their courtship and marriage on an MTV reality show in 2004 entitled Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave .