Tia Carrere

Biography

Tia Carrere was born Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo on January 2, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii. While attending Sacred Hearts Academy, Tia was discovered in a Waikiki grocery store and landed the female lead in the indie movie _Aloha Summer (1988)_ (qv). Although her passion has always been singing (grandmother Rae took Tia to her first singing lesson at age ten), Tia would continue her ascent in the acting world with a regular stint on _"General Hospital" (1963)_ (qv) as Jade Soong and a string of co-starring roles on _"MacGyver" (1985)_ (qv), _"Quantum Leap" (1989)_ (qv) and _"Friday the 13th: The Series" (1987)_ (qv), among others. This was not until her breakthrough role as Cassandra Wong in _Wayne's World (1992)_ (qv) and _Wayne's World 2 (1993)_ (qv) that Tia was able to showcase both her singing and acting chops. Wayne's World was a worldwide phenom and set the stage for the evil femme fatale Juno Skinner in _True Lies (1994)_ (qv), opposite 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' (qv), computer whiz Jingo Asakuma in _Rising Sun (1993)_ (qv), opposite 'Sean Connery' (qv), and her own series lead of Sydney Fox on _"Relic Hunter" (1999)_ (qv). Other current television work includes appearing on the 2007 season premiere of FX network's _"Nip/Tuck" (2003)_ (qv), on 'Kelsey Grammer' (qv)'s _"Back to You" (2007)_ (qv), recurring as Cha Cha on HBO's _"Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2000)_ (qv), and voice work on the Disney series _"Lilo & Stitch: The Series" (2003)_ (qv). Recently, Tia returned to her Hawaiian roots with four Grammy Award-nominated CDs, winning the Grammy Award twice in 2010 and 2012 where she also co-hosted and performed during the ceremony.