Julianne Hough

Julianne Marie Hough (born July 20, 1988) is an American professional ballroom dancer and television celebrity, whom the television newsmagazine 20/20 describes as one of the "very best dancers on the planet." She has won several international titles, is the youngest professional dancer ever to have competed on the televised competition Dancing with the Stars — and won the overall title in her very first year on the show — as she coached her amateur dancer partner, Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, to win the competition.



She reprised her championship on Dancing with the Stars in its very next season, this time paired with Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, matching the back-to-back wins of fellow professional dancer Cheryl Burke. Hough is one of five children to a LDS (Mormon) family in Salt Lake City. She's predisposed to dance: all four of her grandparents were dancers, and her parents met while on a ballroom dancing team at a college in Idaho. Her uncle, Charlie Hough, was known for his "dancing knuckleball" during his career as a Major League Baseball pitcher.



Julianne Hough has danced since the age of three, never partnered in competitions with her brother Derek, three years older than she. Julianne and Derek did dance together for exhibition on DWTS and the DWTS tour. Her formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, where she danced with Josh Murillo, among others, in Latin Ballroom, and was dancing competitively at nine. Her parents sent her and her brother to London a year later to spare them the strife of divorce, and to live and to study with their coaches — the world Latin Dance Champions Corky and Shirley Ballas — who helped raise the two Hough children along with their own son Mark, while schooling them at the Italia Contie Performing Arts School.



They received training in virtually every form of dance, from gymnastics to jazz, and ballet to tap. That threesome formed its own pop music trio 2B1G ("2 Boys, 1 Girl") when she was twelve, performed at Dance Competitions in the U.K. and the U.S., and showcased a UK television show. Hough's education in London with the Ballas family included training in song, dance, and theatre at Britain's oldest performing arts training school, the Italia Conti Academy. At fifteen, Julianne Hough became the youngest and only American to win both prestigious titles of Junior Blackpool World Latin Champion, and International Latin Youth Champion. After five years in London, Hough wanted a "normal" school experience, and returned to Utah to live with her family.



After graduating from Alta High, she moved on her own to Los Angeles to build her singing, songwriting, acting and dancing career. She was an assistant choreographer on Gwen Stefani's "Wind It Up" music video. Hough began working almost immediately upon arriving in Los Angeles. She was featured in two television commercials and was a "dancing" extra in an episode of "Cold Case". She was one of the "Million Dollar Dancers" in the short lived network television game show "Show Me the Money" starring William Shatner. Hough appeared in the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars, a televised ballroom dance competition. In her first year, she won with her partner, Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, making Hough the youngest professional dancer both to compete, and to win, on the program. She is also the third professional (Alec Mazo and Cheryl Burke were the first two) to win a Dancing with the Stars championship in one's first season with the show.

 On November 27, 2007 Hough and her partner, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, became the winners of Season 5. She now is the second professional dancer (first being Cheryl Burke) to win two seasons of Dancing with the Stars (US TV series) in a row. She also made guest appearances on other shows such as , Jimmy Kimmel Live, and The View, Ellen, and "Good Morning America". Nov 30, 2007: Participated in the taping of the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade inside the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Hough has a little sister named Lauren and an older brother named Derek. Her little sister is staring herself in a show call "Oh that Lauren"