Tia Carrere was born Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo on January 2, 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii. While attending Sacred Hearts Academy, Tia was discovered in a Waikiki grocery store and landed the female lead in the indie movie Aloha Summer (1988). Although her passion has always been singing (grandmother Rae took Tia to her first singing lesson at age ten), Tia would continue her ascent in the acting world with a regular stint on Hôpital central (1963) as Jade Soong and a string of co-starring roles on MacGyver (1985), Code Quantum (1989) and Vendredi 13 (1987), among others. It was not until her breakthrough role as Cassandra Wong in the Wayne's World films that Tia was able to showcase, both, her singing and acting chops. Wayne's World was a worldwide phenom and set the stage for the evil Juno Skinner in True Lies - Le caméléon (1994), opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, computer whiz Jingo Asakuma in Soleil levant (1993), opposite Sean Connery, and her own series lead of Sydney Fox on Sydney Fox l'aventurière (1999).
Other current television work has included appearing on the 2007 season premiere of Nip/Tuck (2003), on Kelsey Grammer's Back to You (2007), and recurring as Cha Cha on HBO's Larry et son nombril (2000). Recently, Tia returned to her Hawaiian roots with her voice work on Disney's Lilo & Stitch films and series as well as her Grammy-nominated CD "Hawaiiana".
