Carmen Electra has had a bit of a career whirlwind. I’ve thought about it in recent months, speaking before the People’s Choice Awards about starting out as a “dancer” before working with Prince and then gaining recognition from starring in on-schedule TV projects like Baywatch. yes, the Prince. While chatting with Mario Lopez and Courtney Lopez, she recently dropped her real name, also sharing that it was the Minneapolis-based musician who gave her the name “Electric.”
in a loop of Get to HollywoodCarmen Electra revealed that Prince was responsible for her stage name. It’s long been known that while Electra was working for Prince’s Paisley Park Records (where she recorded an album in 1993), she changed her name on the artist’s recommendation, but she’s shared the full story here.
Not only did Elektra speak up about her real name — Tara Lee Patrick, from Ohio — she confirmed what happened and why she changed, noting:
He gave me my name. He said, “You look nothing like Tara.” Because my real name is Tara, Tara Lee Patrick is my real name. [He said]He said, “C for car, and m for guys in my shows.” And I said, “Well, that’s fun!” And then he said, “Well, we gotta give, I don’t know, when you dance you’re electric.”
The actress went on to talk about the real-life heroine who shared her name, I think Elektra Baywatch The star he’s referring to has to be Elektra Natchios, a daring and deadly bounty hunter with countless connections to Daredevil’s Matt Murdock. Although it’s worth noting that Prince’s version of the name is spelled differently, and Carmen addressed that with her recent comments to Lopez, too.
Elektra came along, and at first I was like, “That sounds like a superhero name.” Which I think it is. And I kind of said, “I don’t know if I want to do that or not.” But then it just kind of clicked and I said, “Well, it’s from Prince and I’m staying with it.” Carmen Electra, that’s my name and I stay with it… I’m proud it’s from Prince.
While the actress’ musical career continued with the self-titled single album, the name has remained consistent. Soon after, Elektra appeared nude in Playboy, then moved to Los Angeles, where she began taking on banker acting roles, including the aforementioned Baywatch, her most famous gig to date. She also famously dated Dennis Rodman in the late ’90s, which might not seem relevant, until you realize that the star gained a lot of attention again in 2020 from appearing in the Michael Jordan documentary. The last dance.
Then she moved to OnlyFans and was an advocate for the platform. She has noted that it gave her control for the first time in her career over content creation, with Elektra noting that OnlyFans gave her a “safe place” to interact with her fans. Even if they occasionally ask for way too many pictures of her feet…
