Carmen Electra was born Tara Leigh Patrick on April 20, 1972, in Sharonville, Ohio, to Harry Patrick, a guitarist and entertainer, and his wife Patricia (d. 1998), a singer. Electra attended Ann Weigel Elementary School and studied dance under Gloria J. Simpson at Dance Artists studio in Western Hills until age nine, when she enrolled in the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), a magnet arts school in the Cincinnati Public School District. There, she was an older classmate of Nick Lachey, with whom she appeared in a production of Peter Pan.