Karina Smirnoff was born on 2 January 1978, in Karkiv, then Ukranian SSR, Soviet Union, of Russian and Greek descent. Karina is a professional ballroom dancer, best known for her multiple appearances in the television show “Dancing With the Stars”. She’s won multiple championships and all of her efforts have helped put her net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Karina Smirnoff? As of mid-2016, sources estimate a net worth that is at $3 million, mostly earned through her success as a dancer. She won “Dancing with the Stars” during its 13th season, and she’s also appeared in other television shows. As she continues her career, her wealth will likely continue to increase.
Karina Smirnoff Net Worth $3 million
Karina started dancing at a very young age, and when she was 11 years old began to compete in ballroom dancing. She then decided to pursue ballroom as a career, and in 1993 moved to New York City, USA. She attended Nerinx Hall High School, moving to Christopher Columbus High School and then St. Louis High School. She then went to Bronx High School of Science from where she matriculated. Afterwards, she attended Fordham University, graduating with a double major in information system programming and economics.
While she was studying, Smirnoff was already competing. She danced with Roman Nabatov early in her career and soon partnered with Paul Killick representing England. In 1999, she danced with Louis Van Amstel for a year and then with Slavik Kryklyvyy for four years. During her time with Slavik, they earned multiple titles and earned high rankings in competitions. Around this time, she appeared in the film “Shall We Dance” and also made her own fitness DVD entitled “Shape Up With Karina Smirnoff”. In 2005, she returned to competition, this time alongside Dmitri Timokhin, and the two would go on the win the 2006 Grand Prix Dynamo, so soon more opportunities would open up for her. She guest-starred in “Hannah Montana” and was also featured in the May 2011 issue of Playboy magazine.
Smirnoff started appearing in “Dancing With the Stars” during the third season in 2006, and was first partnered with Mario Lopez. They would go on and get second place, losing to Cheryl Burke and Emmitt Smith. In the next season she partnered Billy Ray Cyrus. but would get eliminated. In the fifth season, she was then paired with boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and they got 9th place. The following season, she danced with singer Mario eventually ending their run in fifth place. Her next partners would be Rocco DiSpirito, Steve Wozniak, Aaron Carter, and The Situation from “Jersey Shore”. Her next high placing would be in the 12th season after pairing with Ralph Macchio and reaching the semi-finals. During the 13th season, her partner was JR Martinez, who’s known for being a part of “All My Children”. They would go on and win the competition, finally earning Karina her first “Dancing With the Stars” title. She would continue competing in the show, partnered with Gavin DeGraw, Apolo Anton Ohno and Jacoby Jones. Along with Jones, she was able to reach the finals but lost to Zendaya and Kellie Pickler. She came up short once again in the following season, this time partnering Corbin Bleu from “High School Musical”. In the following seasons, she would pair once again with big names such as Sean Avery, Randy Couture and Victor Espinoza but would not reach high placings.
For her personal life, it is known that she dated Mario Lopez for two years, and then dated Makshim Chmerkovskly; they became engaged but broke up a year later. In 2009 she dated Brad Penny, and they also became engaged before calling it off in 2011. In 2015, it was reported that she became engaged to Jason Adelman, but called it off two months later. Aside from these, Smirnoff has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and has to take medicine for it regularly.
