With her athletic moves, exotic beauty and exuberant personality, this professional ballroom dancer won viewers' hearts and votes to become a two-time
Dancing With the Stars champion. Although the California native initially studied ballet, Burke ultimately switched her focus to ballroom and by age 13 was strutting her stuff across the globe. During a 2005 competition opposite her then partner/love interest Jose DeCamps, she caught the eye of an ABC talent scout and became a prime-time player on the smash reality series, earning two Emmy nods for choreography in the process. On the show's second season, she and former boy-bander Drew Lachey danced away with the trophy, and the next year, Burke and retired NFLer Emmitt Smith won the coveted title. She has remained with the reality show, making it to the finals in Season 6 with actor Cristián de la Fuente, and opened her own dance studio in California.
Cheryl Burke Fast Facts:
- Of Filipino, Irish and Russian descent.
- Began ballet classes at age 4 but switched to ballroom dancing at 11.
- Made her TV acting debut in a 2006 episode of Disney's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
- On subsequent seasons of DWTS, was paired with former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Ian Ziering (Season 4), entertainer Wayne Newton (Season 5) and actor Cristián de la Fuente, with whom she made the finals in Season 6.
- Opened a San Francisco dance studio named Cheryl Burke Dance in April of 2008.
- Cheryl Burke Relationships:
- Matthew Lawrence - Ex-significant Other
- Max Zagorski - Significant Other
- Sherrie Bautista-Burke - Mother
- Cheryl Burke Awards:
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Achievement in Choreography - Nominee
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Achievement in Choreography - Nominee
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Choreography - Nominee
- 2006 Emmy: Outstanding Choreography - Nominee
