Cheryl Stephanie Bautista Burke (born May 3, 1984) is a professional dancer. She is best known for being one of the professional dancers on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, where she was the first female professional to win the show and the first professional to win twice and consecutively.

Burke grew up in Atherton, California. Her father is of Irish and Russian descent and her mother is Filipina. Her family dances for recreation and has a dance floor at home. At age four, she began taking ballet lessons and performing locally. She then began ballroom dancing and decided to change her focus. She trained in both standard ballroom and Latin dances. She began competing at age 13. Cheryl attended Menlo-Atherton High School, graduated in 2002. In fall of 2007 Cheryl was awarded the key to the city from the mayor of Atherton at her old high school.

Burke won her first championship with 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey in the second season. She won her second championship with retired football star Emmitt Smith in the third season. Cheryl returned to the ballroom on March 19, 2007 for Season 4, partnered with actor Ian Ziering. She and Ziering were eliminated in the semi-finals on May 15, 2007.

Antonio Sabàto, Jr. (born February 29, 1972) is an American actor and model. Born in Italy and raised in the U.S., Sabàto first became known as a Calvin Klein model and for his role on the soap opera General Hospital. He continued appearing in films and television series throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Sabàto was born in Rome, Italy. His mother, Yvonne Kabouchy, is a realtor born in Prague (in the former Czechoslovakia), and his father, Antonio Sabàto, Sr., is an Italian actor. His maternal grandfather was a Czech aristocrat, and his maternal grandmother was Jewish and survived the Holocaust. Sabàto's family moved to the United States when he was 13, in 1985. He attended St. Bernard High School (Los Angeles, California) before transferring to Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. Sabàto became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1996.

Sabàto first gained attention as a Calvin Klein underwear model, and appeared in Janet Jackson's "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" music video along with actor Djimon Hounsou, who is also a former CK underwear model, in 1990. Moving into acting, from 1992 through 1995 he appeared on the soap opera General Hospital, the science fiction series Earth 2 and on the prime-time soap opera Melrose Place.

James David Maslow (born July 16, 1990) is an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for playing the role of James Diamond on Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush and is a member of the boy music group with the same name.

Maslow was born in New York and grew up in La Jolla, California. He was raised Jewish (in an interview with Clevver TV, when asked his favorite holiday, he replied Hanukkah). At the age of six, Maslow began training as a singer when his parents placed him in the San Diego Children's Choir. He attended La Jolla and Torrey Pines elementary schools, Muirlands Middle School, and San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts. He had a small role in the San Diego Opera's production of La bohème when he was 10 years old. He attended acting camp at the La Jolla Playhouse, got his first agent when he was 14, and performed as Marius in a production of Les Misérables. Quitting the School of Creative and Performing Arts mid-way through the 10th grade, Maslow switched to Coronado School of the Arts (CoSA). He graduated from CoSA in 2007 in the musical theater department.

Gilles Marini (born January 26, 1976) is a French actor. He is known for having appeared in Sex and the City: The Movie and in the American TV show Brothers & Sisters as Luc Laurent.

Marini was born in Grasse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France to a Greek mother and Italian father. After working as a baker in his father's bakery since he was eight years old and graduating from high school, Gilles joined the French army and was stationed in Paris, where he acted as a fireman for the famous Brigade des Sapeurs Pompiers de Paris. It was in Paris where Marini met Fred Goudon, a photographer who introduced him to the world of modeling. After fulfilling his military duties, he went to the United States to learn English while working as a model. He began his career as a model in his early twenties. One of his first jobs was a television commercial for Bud Light beer. He made his acting debut at the age of 29, in the 2005 horror flick Screech of the Decapitated.

He played Dante in Sex and the City: The Movie in which he did a full frontal nude scene. He has been seen on Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty, Dirty Sexy Money, Criminal Minds, Nip/Tuck, The Bold and the Beautiful and Passions. His recent film credits include One and the Other (L'Une et L'Autre) and The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down. On February 8, 2009, it was announced that Marini would participate in the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars. His professional partner was Dancing with the Stars' Cheryl Burke.

Derek Hough ( /ˈhʌf/; born May 17, 1985) is an American dancer, choreographer, musician and actor. A world champion in Latin American Dance, Hough has appeared since September 2007 (Seasons 5 - 11 and Season 13) on the hit U.S. television series Dancing with the Stars, where he is currently a three-time champion (with Brooke Burke, Nicole Scherzinger, and Jennifer Grey), one-time finalist (with Ricki Lake), three-time semi-finalist (with Jennie Garth, Joanna Krupa, and Maria Menounos), and a quarter-finalist (with Lil' Kim). Hough has earned three Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Choreography (2009 and 2010 ) for his work on the show.

Prior to joining Dancing with the Stars, Hough starred as Ren in the 2006 original cast production of Footloose: The Musical at the Novelo Theatre in London's West End, as well as on the 2006 U.K. national tour. Hough's West End performance earned him a nomination as The Stuart Phillips London Newcomer of the Year in the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards. Hough made his Broadway debut on January 8, 2010, starring with Kym Johnson and Mary Murphy in Burn the Floor for the final four performances of the show's Broadway run. A founding member of the Ballas Hough Band (formerly Almost Amy), Hough shares lead vocals, plays guitar and has several songwriting credits on the band's self-titled debut CD, released by Hollywood Records in March 2009.