Who Are The Dancing With The Star Judges?

from cincinatti.com:

By Mike Hughes

They are, for starters, the most international group on TV. Bruno Tonioli was born in Italy, Len Goodman in England, Carrie Ann Inaba in Hawaii, with Japanese, Chinese and Irish roots.

"We've all been working in films and television for 30 years," Tonioli exaggerated when the show started in 2005. "We all started as performers."

They were used to working with strict rules, Goodman said then. "It's from 35 years of judging ballroom and Latin American competitions."

But this show also gives them a category called "intangibles," Inaba said. "We judge on fluidity, we judge on form, we judge on musicality, we judge on the chemistry, we judge on how they look."

Two of the judges were on the British show ("Strictly Come Dancing") that began a year before the American one. The third "Strictly" judge was replaced by Inaba. Here are brief glimpses:

Tonioli, 54: Choreographed tours for Tina Turner and Duran Duran. Also did choreography for music videos (including Paul McCartney, Sheena Easton and Michael Jackson's "Give In to Me"), movies ("Little Voice," "Ella Enchanted") and TV episodes.

Goodman, 65: Longtime competitor in the ballroom style called "Exhibition." He won the British championship four times and finished second at the world championships. Judges ballroom and Latin American competitions and has a dance school in Kent, where he lives.

Inaba, 42: Started as a hula dancer. At 16, she won a Hawaiin talent competition and moved to Japan, where she had three pop-music singles. Back in the U.S., she was one of the five "Fly Girls" on "In Living Color," alongside Jennifer Lopez, with Rosie Perez in charge. She toured with Madonna, Ricky Martin and David Copperfield and was in two "Austin Powers" movies and "Showgirls." She's done choreography, including episodes of "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance," working with Nigel Lythgoe.

Last year, they linked with choreographer Adam Shankman and actress-dancer Katie Holmes to start the Dizzy Feet Foundation, which gives dance scholarships