Tia Carrere has certainly had her fair share of careers in her 42 years of life, singer, actress, model and of course, one of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy models.

Tia was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and at the age of 17 after being passed over in the 1985 Star Search she was spotted by a producer who saw her potential and cast her in the movie Aloha Summer.

But Tia’s first big break came though when she was cast in the daytime soap opera General Hospital. She played the role of Jade Soong Chung from 1985 to 1987. She also had a guest appearance on The A-Team with George Peppard and Mr T.

Tia’s movie career continued with her making appearances in Wayne’s World with Mike Myers and Rob Lowe and Wayne’s World 2 and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.

Tia also continued with her singing career when in 1993, her first solo album, Dream, was released, and went platinum in Mexico. That same year, she was featured on the soundtrack of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, performing the ending theme, “I Never Even Told You”.

But it was January 2003 that saw Tia gracing the cover of Hefner’s Playboy magazine, making her a favourite with collectors of the men’s magazine worldwide.

Tia’s second album, Hawaiiana, was released in June 2007 and takes Carrere back to her Hawaiian roots with three-time Grammy Award winning record producer Daniel Ho accompanying her on classic solo slack-key guitar and ukulele. The album was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award under the category Best Hawaiian Music Album. She won a Grammy Award in 2009, again teaming up with Daniel Ho to produce her third album ‘ikena.

Carrere divorced her husband Elie Samaha in February 2000. On November 30, 2002, she married again, this time to photojournalist Simon Wakelin. They have a daughter, Bianca, born September 25, 2003. At present, she lives in Los Angeles.