Education
Gina graduated from Trinity Christian High School in Las Vegas, Nevada
Gina attended the University of Nevada, Reno for a year and then University of Nevada, Las Vegas for three, where she majored in psychology
Gina graduated from Trinity Christian High School in Las Vegas, Nevada
Gina attended the University of Nevada, Reno for a year and then University of Nevada, Las Vegas for three, where she majored in psychology
Carano starred in the cult film Ring Girls. Based on true events, Ring Girls is a fast-paced story about five American women from Las Vegas who take on the ultimate challenge of fighting the best female Muay Thai fighters in the world.
Along with Lisa King, Carano served as a mentor to aspiring female fighters in the Oxygen reality series Fight Girls. She appeared as "Crush" on the NBC show American Gladiators, in which she starred in the workout video of the show along with Monica Carlson (Jet), Jennifer Widerstrom (Phoenix), Michael O'Hearn (Titan), Tanoai Reed (Toa) and Don "Hollywood" Yates (Wolf). The DVD was released on December 16, 2008. She is featured in the Michael Jai White film Blood and Bone.
She has appeared in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 as Natasha, a purchasable hero unit, portraying the Soviet sniper/commando in various cutscenes.
In September 2009, Carano landed the leading role in the spy thriller movie Haywire, directed by Steven Soderbergh. Christy Lemire of The Associated Press stated; "[Carano's] dialogue delivery may seem a bit stiff – and she has acknowledged that Soderbergh made some tweaks to her voice in post-production – but she has tremendous presence: an intriguing mix of muscular power and eye-catching femininity".
In February 2012, Carano was cast in In the Blood, an action thriller being directed by John Stockwell (Into the Blue, Blue Crush). The film has been described as being in the vein of Taken, In the Blood is set in motion when a husband disappears while vacationing in the Caribbean with his wife, played by Carano. The grieving wife passionately and recklessly pursues the men whom she believes kidnapped and killed him. Stockwell stated, "This role will showcase not only Gina’s fighting skills, but also her acting abilities as her character struggles to reign in her violent past".
2005 Ring Girls Muay Thai Fighter/Herself Video
2005 Countdown to Destiny Herself TV documentary
2006 Fight Girls N/A TV series
2008 American Gladiators Crush TV series
2008 American Gladiators Ultimate Workout Crush Video
2008 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Natasha Volkova Video Game
2008 Fatal Femmes Fighting: Asian Invasion Herself Video
2009 Blood and Bone Verett Film
2011 I Am Bruce Lee Herself TV documentary
2012 Haywire Mallory Kane Film
She was ranked as #5 on the "Top Ten Influential Women of 2008" list on Yahoo!
In May 2009, it was announced that Carano was ranked #16 in Maxim's Hot 100 list.
In April 2012 Carano will become the first recipient of the Chick Norris (Best Female Action Star) Award, given by ActionFest to the female action star of the year.
Gina is one of the cover athletes along with Serena Williams for the October 19, 2009 edition of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network The Magazine's Body Issue. Carano and Williams were two of the athletes featured in a book by Dana Rasmussen.
Carano started her career in the sport of Muay Thai. Gina's ex-boyfriend Kevin Ross, a pro Muay Thai fighter, got her involved in Muay Thai. After achieving a Muay Thai record of 12–1–1, Carano received an offer from Jamie Levine to participate in the first-ever sanctioned female MMA bout in Nevada with World Extreme Fighting to fight Leiticia Pestova. She was invited to the World Pro Fighting show in Las Vegas to fight Rosi Sexton.[10] Carano won the fight by knocking out Sexton late in the second round.
Carano faced Elaina Maxwell at Strikeforce: Triple Threat on December 8, 2006. She won the fight via unanimous decision. Carano proved critics wrong when she defeated Maxwell for the second time; the first victory coming in a Muay Thai bout. The fight was the first female fight in Strikeforce.
She fought on the February 10, 2007, Showtime EliteXC card, defeating Julie Kedzie via unanimous decision in what was called the "Fight of the Night." The fight was the first televised female fight on Showtime.
