Julianne Hough

Julianne Alexandra Hough was born on July 20, 1988, in Orem, Utah, the youngest of five children in a Mormon family. Her parents are Bruce and Marianne Hough; her father served twice as chairman of the Utah Republican Party and ran for Utah's 2nd congressional district in 2023. Her brother Derek Hough is also a professional dancer, and all four of her grandparents were dancers. She is the second cousin of Riker, Rydel, Rocky, Ryland, and Ross Lynch of the band R5, whose maternal grandmothers are sisters.

Hough began her formal training at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, where she studied Latin Ballroom and began competing at age nine. At ten, following her parents' divorce, she and her brother Derek were sent to London to train under coaches Corky and Shirley Ballas, alongside the Ballases' son Mark. At the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, she received instruction in song, theatre, gymnastics, jazz, ballet, and tap. The three children formed a pop music trio called 2B1G, performing at competitions in both the UK and the US and appearing on a UK television program. At fifteen, Hough became the youngest dancer and the only American to win both the Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion titles at the Blackpool Dance Festival. After returning to the United States, she attended the Las Vegas Academy and Alta High School.

Hough appeared as one of the Million Dollar Dancers on the 2006 ABC game show Show Me the Money before joining the cast of Dancing with the Stars in 2007 as a professional dancer. She won season four alongside Olympic speed skater Apolo Ohno, becoming the youngest professional dancer to win on the program, and won season five with three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves. In July 2008, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category of Outstanding Choreography for her mambo "Para Los Rumberos," performed with Castroneves. During season seven, she was partnered with actor Cody Linley but required emergency surgery after being diagnosed with endometriosis, causing her to miss several performances while Edyta Śliwińska stood in. She returned for season eight with country singer Chuck Wicks before announcing a departure from the show to pursue her music career. In September 2014, she returned to Dancing with the Stars as a permanent judge, a position she held until 2017, and received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her work on the series, winning once in 2015 alongside her brother Derek. She also served as a guest judge in 2021 and, in March 2023, joined the show as co-host alongside Alfonso Ribeiro following Tyra Banks's departure.

In music, Hough released her first country single, "Will You Dance With Me," in May 2007 to benefit the American Red Cross, placing it at number 100 on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She signed with Mercury Nashville, a division of Universal Music Group Nashville, and released a self-titled debut album in 2008, recorded in Nashville and produced by David Malloy. The album debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. Her second single, "That Song in My Head," was the first released to country radio. That same year she joined Brad Paisley's 2008 tour alongside Jewel and Chuck Wicks, and appeared in the music video for Snoop Dogg's "My Medicine" with Paisley and Willie Nelson.

Her screen acting career began with a small role in the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She went on to play leading roles as Ariel in Footloose (2011), Sherrie in Rock of Ages (2012), and Katie in Safe Haven (2013), with her first major film role coming in the 2010 film Burlesque. In 2016, she portrayed Sandy in the live Fox television production of Grease. She also served as a judge on America's Got Talent during its fourteenth season.

In 2014, Hough and her brother Derek launched "Move Live on Tour," a sold-out summer tour of more than forty cities across the US and Canada, with choreography created in collaboration with Nappytabs. The tour ran from May 25 to July 26, 2014, with additional dates added due to demand. A second edition of the tour followed in the summer of 2015, spanning June 12 to August 8 and visiting larger venues across more than forty cities, again with Nappytabs as collaborating choreographers. In December 2016, the siblings announced a follow-up tour, "Move Beyond Live on Tour," for 2017.

Hough made her Broadway debut in 2022 in the political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. That same year, she co-hosted The Tony Awards: Act One alongside Darren Criss.