Peta Murgatroyd

Peta Jane Murgatroyd, born on July 14, 1986, is an Australian and American professional Latin dancer. She is best known for her regular appearances on the American competition series Dancing with the Stars, which she has won twice. She has also achieved prominence as a lead stage dancer, performing internationally and on Broadway in the production Burn the Floor.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Murgatroyd relocated to Australia at eighteen months old and grew up in Perth, Western Australia. She began training in classical ballet at age four, spending twelve years studying under Madame Lubov Nikonorenko, a former principal dancer of the Kirov Ballet. After an ankle injury at age sixteen ended her ballet training, she shifted her focus to Latin dance. Shortly after starting ballroom dance, she won the W.A. Amateur Latin State Championship in 2002 and 2003. She placed second in the Great World City Championships, reached the semi-finals at the Lion City Championships in Singapore, was a finalist in the Australian Open Championships, and finished third in the world in the Youth Under 21 Latin category at the 2005 Blackpool Dance Festival.

Murgatroyd joined the touring cast of Burn the Floor in 2004, traveling worldwide with the show for six years. When the production ran on Broadway in August 2009, she performed as the lead female dancer. Beginning in 2014, she also performed in the live ballroom show Sway: A Dance Trilogy. Additionally, she joined the cast of the Dancing with the Stars: Live! tours, including the "Perfect Ten" tour in mid-2015 and the "Dance All Night" tour during the winter of 2015–2016.

In 2011, Murgatroyd debuted on Dancing with the Stars in season twelve as a troupe member before becoming a main professional cast member in season thirteen. She earned her first victory in season fourteen alongside football player Donald Driver, and won her second championship in season twenty-two with model and actor Nyle DiMarco. Over her seasons on the show, she competed alongside partners including Metta World Peace, Gilles Marini, Sean Lowe, Brant Daugherty, James Maslow, Tommy Chong, Michael Sam, Nick Viall, Nick Lachey, Lamar Odom, Vernon Davis, and Jason Lewis. Injury and personal milestones occasionally paused her participation, including an ankle injury that required surgery during season twenty-one and her pregnancy during season twenty-three.

Beyond stage and television performances, Murgatroyd launched her own self-tanning brand, Peta Jane Beauty, in 2015. She also expanded into acting, starring opposite Robert Krantz in the 2018 faith-based film Faith, Hope & Love, playing a dance studio owner paired with a widower in an amateur dance competition.

In her personal life, Murgatroyd dated dancer Damian Whitewood for five years until early 2012. She later began dating professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who proposed to her in December 2015. The couple married on July 8, 2017, in Long Island, New York. They have three sons: Shai Aleksander, born in January 2017; Rio John, born in June 2023; and Milan Maksim, born in July 2024. Murgatroyd was sworn in as a United States citizen on October 10, 2019.