How much is Karina Smirnoff worth?
| Net Worth: | $6 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Dancer |
| Date of Birth: | January 2, 1978 |
| Country: | Ukraine-born American |
| Height: | 1.65 m |
About Karina Smirnoff
As a professional dancer on ABC’s popular show Dancing With the Stars, you’ve seen her getting down. Dancing With the Stars’ twinkle-toed studs Mario Lopez and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. were transformed into macho celebrities thanks to the ballroom dancing superstar Karina Smirnoff, but this Ukrainian knockout is also a world champion and an absolute genius.
Pros at Dance
Born and raised in the Ukraine, Karina Smirnoff. She began dancing at the age of five, and her success in ice skating and gymnastics demonstrated her inherent athleticism. She had always preferred dance, and when she started competing at age 11, Smirnoff’s concentration permanently turned to ballroom. A year later, Smirnoff’s family immigrated to America, and the already-trained young dancer took a brief vacation from competition to enroll in Fordham University in New York City.
When she wasn’t studying, Smirnoff kept up her training. After impressively earning two degrees in economics and information systems programming, she chose to give up her dream of becoming a lawyer and focus instead on a professional ballroom career.
From 2001 through 2005, Smirnoff and Slavik Kryklyvyy won multiple accolades together, including the U.S. Championship and the U.K. Open in the Professional Latin division.
Smirnoff won the World Trophy and the U.S. National Championship five times, though her collaboration with Kryklyvyy was the most fruitful. She also had success with other partners.
Fail with Celebrities
Smirnoff’s alluring appearance and great talent meant that Dancing with the Stars would eventually take notice. In 2006, Smirnoff became a member of the program and was matched with Lopez. Lopez performed flawlessly, and the couple finished in second. She then performed alongside Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley Cyrus’ father, in fifth place the next season. With a cameo appearance on his daughter’s popular television series Hannah Montana, Cyrus complimented her for her work.
Since then, Smirnoff has established itself as a regular on Dancing, teaming up with celebrities like The Situation, Rocco DiSpirito, and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. She hasn’t yet taken home the Mirror Ball trophy, but she’s only missing one exceptional companion.
When Smirnoff isn’t working tirelessly to teach illiterate celebrities like The Situation the cha-cha, she keeps busy by developing her own personal brand. In addition to launching her own boot line last January and a Karina cosmetics collection with Girlactik Beauty, she first produced a training DVD in 2010.
Hugh Hefner from A.C. Slater
Smirnoff appeared in a pictorial in the May 2011 issue of Playboy, so it must not have been enough for her to show off her skills on one of TV’s biggest shows. However, Hugh Hefner is not the only one that approves of Karina. From 2006 until 2008, she dated Lopez, her partner on the dance floor. Before breaking up, the couple even moved in together.
In the summer of 2008, she soon moved on with her smoldering co-star Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and the couple declared their engagement in January 2009. Sadly, their brief romance did not last, and they called off their wedding in September of the following year.
After splitting from Chmerkovskiy a month later, Sexy Smirnoff began dating baseball player Brad Penny after being introduced by UFC fighter Chuck Liddell. Smirnoff says she is pleased to be settling down with a great southern gentleman. They announced their engagement in 2010.
“Sexy is the confident energy a person produces … the comfortable feeling of being who you are.”
