Karina Smirnoff

Karina Smirnoff, born Karina Smyrnova on January 2, 1978, in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, is a professional ballroom dancer of half-Greek and half-Russian Jewish descent. She began competing in ballroom dancing at age eleven and immigrated to the United States in 1993. Smirnoff attended Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis and Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx before graduating from the Bronx High School of Science. She subsequently earned a degree from Fordham University in New York City, completing a double major in economics and information system programming.

Smirnoff's competitive ballroom career included partnerships with several professional dancers across different national affiliations. She and Roman Nabatov competed as an amateur couple representing the United States, ending their partnership in January 1997. She then partnered with Paul Killick from October 1998 to July 1999, representing England. Louis Van Amstel became her next partner in July 1999, with the two representing the United States until December 2000. Her most successful competitive partnership was with Slavik Kryklyvyy, which lasted from January 2001 to September 2005 under the American flag, producing numerous top titles and high placements. Her final recorded competitive partner was Dmitri Timokhin, representing Russia; the two won first place at the 2006 Grand-Prix Dynamo in Moscow before concluding their partnership in June 2006.

Among her competitive achievements, Smirnoff holds five U.S. National Professional Champion titles, a World Trophy Championship, and an Asian Open Championship. She is a three-time U.S. Open champion, a five-time Dutch Open champion, and a two-time Asian Open champion. She has also claimed the UK Open title and reached second place at the British Open Blackpool Dance Festival. Notably, she became the first woman to reach the British Professional Final with three different partners, and later extended that distinction by reaching the final with four different partners between 1999 and 2006.

Beyond competition, Smirnoff appeared as a dance instructor in the 2004 film Shall We Dance, serving as Stanley Tucci's on-screen dance partner. She released a fitness DVD titled Shape Up With Karina Smirnoff and guest starred as Madame Escajeda in an episode of Hannah Montana. She served as project manager and director of a dance event called Day and Night, held on November 18, 2006, at the Hollywood and Highlands Grand Ballroom. A nude pictorial featuring Smirnoff appeared in the May 2011 American edition of Playboy. In November 2016, she was announced as a cast member of the second season of the E! reality series Famously Single.

Smirnoff's Broadway career spanned from 2009 to 2013, during which she appeared in two productions: Forever Tango and Burn the Floor. Both shows placed her work as a stage performer alongside her broader identity as a competitive and television dancer.

Smirnoff is widely recognized for her long tenure as a professional partner on the ABC series Dancing with the Stars. She first appeared in Season 3 alongside Mario Lopez, finishing in second place behind the team of Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke. Subsequent seasons paired her with Billy Ray Cyrus, Floyd Mayweather Jr., singer Mario, Rocco DiSpirito, Steve Wozniak, Aaron Carter, Michael Sorrentino, and Ralph Macchio, among others. Her most celebrated result on the series came in Season 13, when she and All My Children actor J. R. Martinez won the competition, defeating Rob Kardashian and Ricki Lake in the finale. That victory marked her first time reaching the finals since her debut season. Later seasons saw her partnered with Gavin DeGraw, Apolo Anton Ohno, Jacoby Jones, Corbin Bleu, Sean Avery, Randy Couture, Victor Espinoza, and Doug Flutie. In October 2023, Smirnoff returned to the Season 32 ballroom to participate in a group Waltz performed to Moon River as a tribute to the late Dancing with the Stars judge Len Goodman, who had died on April 22, 2023, following a battle with cancer.