Three Fil-Ams in Dancing With the Stars 2009
In probably the first time in history, three Filipino-Americans are featured in one major show on U.S. mainstream television. Almost every Pinoy knows that Cheryl Burke, a champion professional ballroom dancer from the San Francisco Bay area, is of Filipino descent. But it has been just brought to my attention by Ted Benito of TDRZ Productions that two celebrity contestants, Mark Dacascos and Natalie Coughlin, for the 2009 Dancing With The Stars are Fil-Ams too. All are quite successful in their chosen fields and I am sure will very much appreciate your support in this contest.
Natalie Coughlin with Alec Mazo
Mark Dacascos with Lacey Schwimmer
Cheryl Burke with Tom Delay
Natalie Coughlin
Olympic swimming gold medalist Natalie Coughlin is the most decorated female athlete of both the 2008 Beijing and 2004 Athens Games. Coughlin has won a medal in every single Olympic event that she has ever entered for a total of 11 Olympic medals. (read more)
Mark Dacascos
Famously known as “The Chairman” and host of Food Network’s Iron Chef America, Dacascos is also a trained martial artist as well as actor. (read more)
Cheryl Burke
As the only professional dancer to appear in the DWTS finals three times, Cheryl has won over audiences with her creative choreography and effervescent personality. We suspect her dangerously low cut dresses might have something to do with it, too. (read more)
For more information about Dancing With The Stars go to http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars.
Last 5 Posts by Maria Maria
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Mark Dacascos was a recipient of a Visionary Awards, held back in March 2008 at the Kodak Theater. He will hosting a documentary about Japanese Samurai on the History Channel later this month. He is the “Chairman” on Iron Chef America. It would be great to see a Fil-Am CONTESTANT (Cheryl Burke has won twice as one of the regular dancers) win this national, mainstream competition, and Mark’s got a great chance. As does Natalie Coughlin, the Olympic gold medalist swimmer from Vallejo, California and who has been featured in Filipinas magazine. Let’s hope one of em comes out the winner!
Thanks again for the heads-up Ted. As usual, you have the inside scoop re Fil-Am and Asian Pacific showbiz stars. More power to TDRZ Productions