Topic: Tia Carrere

Tia Carrere (born Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo on January 2, 1967) is an American actress, model, and singer, perhaps most widely known for her role as Cassandra in the feature films Wayne's World and Wayne's World 2 and as Sydney Fox in the TV series Relic Hunter.

Carrere was born Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo in Honolulu, Hawaii, the daughter of Audrey Duhinio Janairo, a computer supervisor, and Alexander Janairo, a banker. She is of Spanish, Chinese and Filipino descent. Carrere attended Sacred Hearts Academy, an all girls school. Carrere longed to be a singer as a child. Although she was eliminated during the first round of her 1985 Star Search appearance at the age of 17, she was spotted by the parents of a local producer while shopping at a Waikiki grocery store and was cast in the movie Aloha Summer.

Following this initial success, Carrere returned to Los Angeles and, after working several months as a model, landed a first ever role in the U.S. TV series Airwolf in early 1985. Her first major break though was 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, which was supposed to lead to her joining the cast. Unfortunately, her General Hospital obligations prevented her from joining the team. Her character was dropped after one episode, and was never mentioned again. She also made guest appearances on the shows MacGyver ("The Wish Child") as a sexy karate instructor as well as a different assassin character in a later episode ("Murderer's Sky"), on Anything But Love as the adopted daughter of Marty Gold (Richard Lewis), and Married... with Children as Piper Bauman, a rival of Kelly Bundy's who attempted to steal a modeling job from her.