Brooke Burke life and biography

Born on September 8, 1971 in Hartford, Connecticut, actress and model Brooke Burke has a unique and exotic look that comes from her multi-ethnic background which includes a French-Irish heritage on her father George's side, and Portuguese-Irish heritage on her mother Donna's side. She is the middle child of 7 siblings with 3 older sisters and 3 younger brothers. While little is known about Brooke's parents, it appears likely that they divorced as her biological father left the family when Brooke was just two years old. After that Brooke's mother Donna moved to Tucson, Arizona and fell in love and married with Armen Hartounian, who helped raise Brooke and her siblings as their mother worked three jobs to support the family needs.

Never did Brooke envision herself in the entertainment industry, instead of wanting to pursue an atypical career. She actually wanted to be a rock band drummer. She says, "When I was young, I wanted to do something more low-key, like become a drummer in a rock band". It's obvious that Brooke's aspirations weren't a career in modeling, but when she accompanied a friend to a modeling agency in Scottsdale, Arizona, she was discovered by a talent scout who happened to be there. From that time, the former beauty pageant winner decided to pursue a modeling career and became a print model by the age of 18, in everything from magazine covers and billboards to swimsuit calendars. Wanted took that modeling opportunity to jump fully into the entertainment field, Brooke moved to Los Angeles and studied broadcast journalism at UCLA.

In between classes during her first year at school, Brooke signed with the industry's highest profile agencies including Ford, Wilhelmina, and Cunningham-Escott-Dipene. And in the near future she was gracing dozens of magazine covers, billboards, swimsuit editorials, catalogues and posters; and she also starred in many popular advertisements and commercials. Furthermore, Brooke too performed in Bally's Total Fitness commercials where she played the ''beautiful body,'' and starred in a Discover Card commercial opposite Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, where she played his ''dream date.'' Got involved in any other credits like Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and M Professional Cosmetics; kept busy and content with modeling; and did an interview with E! Entertainment on the insistence of a friend, Brooke finally met the expectations of producers that were looking for a real person that could go to exotic locations, interact with the people, and be spontaneous.

Believe it or not Brooke had signed a three year deal and was packing her suitcases to host E!'s "Wild On" (1997), a show seen in 120 countries and more than 400 million homes that sends her to exotic locations around the world where her job is to party. Thanks to the show because of which Brooke has become a famous celebrity. After completing her job for "Wild On," the breathtakingly beauty went on to host E!'s pop culture countdown series, "Rank" (2001), which rates everything in entertainment, from Hollywood's sexiest stars to the best date movies. In August 2003, Brooke completed her stint in E! and set her sights on an acting career, landing a cameo role in the Ben Stiller / Vince Vaughn comedy, "Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story" (2004) and parts in the independent features "The Hazing" (2004) and "Knuckle Sandwich" (2004).

Moreover, she also had guest-starred in such TV series, as "Less Than Perfect" (2002), "It's All Relative" (2003), "The Bernie Mac Show" (2001), "Monk" (2002), "Rock Me Baby" (2003) and "That's Life" (2000), and made her stage debut performing a celebrity guest "CenterPIECE" monologue for the Los Angeles premiere of the off-Broadway play "Pieces (of Ass)." Above all, Brooke had once lent her voice to Atari's "Trivial Pursuit Unhinged" video game as the celebrity host of its "People and Places" category.

Not only the three-year stint as host of "Wild On" has given Brooke such chances to travel to many places, but also it allowed her to span the globe in search of "hot, hip and sexy" styles for swimwear which resulting in her partnering with Studio Italia designer Christina Andrade Brenner to develop a line of Italian-manufactured beachwear called "Barely Brooke," which she describes as "a mix of hot, simple, earthy looks, combined with island-inspired fabrics to create the best imagery of style from around the world." "Barely Brooke" collection which offers bikinis, one-piece suits, matching pants, cover-ups and tops, appeared in "Sports Illustrated's 2003 Swimsuit Edition." In addition, Victoria's Secret also offered one of the Barely Brooke collections in its popular catalogue.

As for Brooke's personal life, she married to a plastic surgeon named Garth Fisher in 2001. Both of them had a daughter named Neriah, who was born before their legal marriage and on April 2, 2002, Brooke gave birth to a second baby daughter named Sierra Sky Fisher. Unfortunately, their being together for years and the existence of their children couldn't prevent a crack in their relationship as the couple later in July 2005 announced their separation in a statement issued to People magazine, saying "We are saddened to announce that we have mutually decided to separate after seven years together." In further verification they explained, "Although our careers have taken us in different directions the past few years, we have a great deal of respect for one another and remain committed to raising our two children (Sierra Sky, 3, and Neriah, 5) together."

Since then on, Brooke became close to actor-singer David Charvet whom she later engaged to. The pair then welcomed the arrival of their first child together, a baby girl named Heaven Rain Charvet, on January 8, 2007.

Filmography

2004 : The Hazing
2004 : Knuckle Sandwich
2004 : Need for Speed: Underground 2
1986 : The Wraith

Read more