Erika Jayne

Erika Jayne, born Erika Chahoy on July 10, 1971, in Atlanta, Georgia, is an American singer, actress, and television personality. Raised by her single mother, Renee Chahoy, after her father departed when she was nine months old, Jayne graduated from North Atlanta High School before relocating to New York City at age 18.

Her early acting work included two uncredited appearances on the first season of NBC's Law & Order — one as murder victim Suzanne Morton in the pilot episode "Prescription for Death" and another as Tim Pruiting's girlfriend in "The Violence of Summer" — as well as roles in the independent films Alchemy (1995) and Lowball (1996). The name "Erika Jayne" was created by music producer Peter Rafelson, a detail Jayne recounts in her autobiography, Pretty Mess. Her debut single, "Roller Coaster," was released on January 1, 2007, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Her first album, also titled Pretty Mess, followed in August 2009. Subsequent standalone singles released between 2010 and 2018 included the number one tracks "Painkillr" and "How Many Fucks." In 2018, she undertook her first headlining concert tour, Erika Jayne Presents: The Pretty Mess Tour, which visited 13 cities across the United States. In April 2023, she announced a Las Vegas concert residency titled Bet It All on Blonde, held at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay on select weekends from August through December 2023.

On Broadway, Jayne appeared in Chicago, the long-running production at the Ambassador Theater. Cast as Roxie Hart in 2019, she made her debut in the role on January 6, 2020. Her run, originally scheduled to continue through March 29, 2020, was cut short when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the production to shut down; her final performance took place on March 11, 2020. She returned to the Ambassador Theater to reprise the role of Roxie Hart on January 20, 2025, for an engagement initially planned for three weeks that was subsequently extended, with performances scheduled through February 23, 2025.

Jayne joined the cast of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2015 for the show's sixth season, with The New York Times estimating her earnings at more than $600,000 for the eleventh season in 2021. In December 2016, she guest starred on The Young and the Restless alongside former Real Housewives cast member Eileen Davidson, returning to the soap opera for one episode in 2017 and two in 2018. In 2017, she competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with Gleb Savchenko, before being eliminated in week five. She served as a red carpet host for the American Music Awards in both 2017 and 2018 and co-hosted the pre-show for the 2018 Billboard Music Awards. In 2018, she competed on Lip Sync Battle, losing to Taye Diggs. In March 2024, Bravo aired the two-part documentary Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde, centered on her 2023 Las Vegas residency. In 2025, she competed on season thirteen of The Masked Singer as "Yorkie," and was eliminated during the Group C Finals: Decades Night.

While living in New York, Jayne met Thomas Zizzo, a DJ, and the two married in December 1991 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The couple had a son, Thomas Zizzo Jr., who works as a police officer in Los Angeles. Following their divorce in 1996, Jayne moved to Los Angeles. She met Los Angeles personal-injury attorney Thomas Girardi in 1998 while working as a cocktail waitress at Chasen's restaurant, and the two married in January 2000. In November 2020, she announced her separation from Girardi and filed for divorce. The following month, the couple were named in a lawsuit alleging the embezzlement of funds intended for families of victims of the 2018 Lion Air plane crash. Subsequent legal proceedings included allegations that more than $20 million in victims' compensation had been improperly directed to EJ Global, a company established to finance Jayne's entertainment career. In August 2022, a judge ruled that plaintiffs in a $5 million civil fraud lawsuit could not prove Jayne had knowledge of or involvement in the alleged fraud. A federal court jury found Thomas Girardi guilty of four counts of wire fraud in August 2024, and he was sentenced in June 2025 to an 87-month prison term, with an expected release date of August 1, 2031.