Born: Julianne Alexandra Hough
Date of Birth: 20 July 1988
Birth Place: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Height: 5′ 3″ (1,6 m)
Julianne Alexandra Hough was raised in Salt Lake City, the youngest of 5 children. She is the daughter of Mari Anne (Heaton) and Bruce Robert Hough, twice chairman of the Utah Republican Party. Her parents met in college when both were part of a ballroom dancing team. Her parents divorced, and she has 9 stepsiblings from their second marriages.
Her mother was instrumental in her career in entertainment, enrolling her and her siblings in various performance classes from a very young age. She began her training in Latin ballroom dancing at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah. At age 10, along with her brother Derek Hough, she went to London to study with coaches Corky and Shirley Ballas. She and Derek attended the Italia Conti Academy with Mark Ballas. The three children performed as a pop music trio ‘2B1G’ (2 Boys, 1 Girl) at dance competitions in the United Kingdom and the United States. At age 15, Julianne became Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival.
A true triple-threat, singer/actress/dancer Julianne Hough was already known to millions of fans as the two-time professional dance champion on ABC-TV’s top-rated Dancing With the Stars before expanding into the worlds of music and film.
Although she has been winning world dance titles since her early teens, Julianne’s ultimate goal has always been a career in country music. Her self-titled debut album, released by Universal Music Group Nashville in 2008, hit the Billboard Country charts at #1 and entered the Billboard 200 at #3, marking the highest debut for a country artist since 2006. Her first two singles from the album, “That Song in My Head” and “My Hallelujah Song,” soared up the country charts and she earned her first two 2009 Academy of Country Music Awards for Top New Female Vocalist and Top New Artist.
Hitting the road for the first time as a recording artist, Julianne opened for superstar Brad Paisley and later toured with George Strait, playing over 100 shows in 2009. Her second album, The Julianne Hough Holiday Collection, became an instant holiday classic for her legions of fans, distributed exclusively at Target. Her much-anticipated follow-up album will be released by Mercury Nashville later this year. Her latest single, “Is That So Wrong?,” is taking radio by storm and reflects the edgier, more mature tone of the new CD. Julianne has written multiple tracks for the new album, working with Dann Huff, one the hottest producers in country music today (Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, among others). She is currently touring the U.S.
Having become a household name virtually overnight on Dancing With the Stars, then making a seamless transition to recording artist, Julianne is also well on her way to making her mark in the world of motion pictures, most recently appearing in the star-studded ensemble of Screen Gems’ dramatic musical “Burlesque,” working alongside Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci, Eric Dane, Kristen Bell and Cam Gigandet. In the film written and directed by Steve Antin, Julianne plays Georgia.
A born entertainer, Julianne Hough (pronounced “Huff”) always loved singing, dancing and acting. At age 10, she was presented with an opportunity to study performing arts in London, which established her fierce independence and was the beginning of a period of intense training and education. She returned to Utah at age 15 and, after graduating high school, moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of a career in entertainment.
Quickly earning a solid reputation for her talent, discipline and professionalism, it took less than a month for Julianne to land a job as a dancer on the ABC game show, Show Me The Money and shortly thereafter joined the Dancing With the Stars tour as a company dancer before joining the cast of the hit series in the show’s fourth season, where she was paired with two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Apolo Anton Ohno.
She toured with the troupe again, before returning to the hit show for seasons five through eight, pairing with Indy race champion Helio Castroneves, comedian Adam Carolla, actor Cody Linley and country singer Chuck Wicks. Hough remains the youngest dancer to have won the coveted Dancing with the Stars competition twice, with partners Ohno and Castroneves and she earned an Emmy nomination in 2008 for Best Choreography for her work on the show. Her skills as a choreographer also led to a collaboration with Gwen Stefani on the singer’s “Wind It Up” video.
While devoting most of her time to recording, touring and now filmmaking, Julianne is also active in a range of philanthropic endeavors, charities and humanitarian efforts including the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Clothes Off Our Back, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and serves on the American Red Cross Cabinet.
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