Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff

Posted By: admin On: September 24, 2008 Comments: ( 0 )

Rocco DiSpirito
Occupation: Celebrity chef, author and reality TV star

Partnered With: Karina Smirnoff

BACKGROUND:
The James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef and author Rocco DiSpirito combines his world-class cooking with a passion for empowering home cooks. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Rocco opened the 3-star Union Pacific in New York City in 1997. In 2003 he launched Rocco’s for the reality series, The Restaurant. Rocco will next appear on the A&E series, Rocco Gets Real, beginning in October, along with its companion cookbook, Rocco Gets Real: Cook at Home Every Day.

Karina Smirnoff

Partnered With: Rocco DiSpirito

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• Five-time U.S. National Champion
• World Trophy Champion
• Asian Open Champion
• Ranked second in the world

STATS:
Style: Latin
Nationality: Russian
Based in: New Jersey
Status: Not Currently Competing

BACKGROUND:
During Season 3, Karina partnered actor Mario Lopez into second place. Season 4, she partnered singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus into fifth place. In Season 5 she partnered Floyd Mayweather into 9th place, and finished Season 6 with singer Mario in 5th place.

Born in the Ukraine, Karina came to the U.S. with her family at age 12. She began ballet lessons at the age of 5 before moving on to figure skating which she studied for an additional five years. At the age of nine, Karina was introduced to ballroom dancing and fell in love with it.

After high school Karina graduated from Fordham University with a law degree but put her academic studies on hold to pursue her ballroom dancing career in the United Kingdom.

She recently appeared on Hannah Montana with Billy Ray Cyrus.

Karina and her former partner Slavik Kryklyvyy shared tremendous success winning the U.S. Championships and many other world titles and were ranked second in the world in the Latin division.