Topic: Alec Mazo

Alec Mazo is a Russian-born American professional ballroom dancer based in San Francisco. He became known for his participation in the American edition of the reality television series Dancing with the Stars, the first season of which he won with partner Kelly Monaco.

Mazo, who is of Russian Jewish descent, has been dancing since he was five years old, and at age twelve, moved from Russia to San Antonio, Texas, and later to San Francisco, where his former engineer mother began a dance school. Mazo began studying dancing there at 16 in order to improve his socialization skills with girls, and to ease his back problems. He later studied computer science, and then cognitive science at the University of California at Berkeley, in the hopes of one day becoming a dance teacher.

Mazo worked as the CFO of the Genesis Dance Sport studio in San Francisco. Expanding the studio into Los Angeles has been one of his goals.