Gina Joy Carano is an American fitness model, TV personality, and actress. She was also a former mixed-martial artist. From 2006 to 2009, Garano competed in Strikeforce and EliteXC.
Due to her popularity, Carano is known as the Face of Women’s MMA. However, Carano rejected the title.
During their 2009 Strikeforce fight, Cris Cyborg and Gina Carano were the first woman to headline a major MMA event. After her first professional MMA defeat to Cyborg, Carano retired from competition.
After retiring, she went to the screen. In 2011, her first major role was the lead of an action movie titled “Haywire”. She also made appearances in Fast and Furious 6 and Deadpool.
In the 1st two seasons of The Mandalorian, Carano played the role of Cara Dune from 2019 to 2020. However, in 2021, Lucasfilm announced that Carano will not appear in future Star Wars films after a series of controversial tweets she made.
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Early Life
Gina Joy Carano has her birth date on April 16, 1982, in Dallas County, Texas. However, she grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada.
She was the daughter of Glenn Carano, a former professional football player, and Dana Joy Cason, a casino executive.
Carano has 1 older sibling and 1 younger sibling. After her parents divorced when she was still 7 years old, she was raised by her mother alone.
Every year, Carano and her family celebrate an Italian festival. However, she has said that she is of a small percentage of Italian descent.
Carano had her studies in the Trinity Christian High School located in Las Vegas. During her high school days, Carano led the girls’ basketball team to a state title.
Aside from basketball, Carano also played softball and volleyball. For 1 year, Carano went to the University of Nevada Reno. After that, she went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for 3 years. She majored in Psychology.
Mixed Martial Arts Career
Gina started to pursue a career as a professional Muay Thai fighter after she graduated from college. Because she was extremely successful, she gained national attention.
After she gained a Muay Thai record of 12 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss, Carano fought in the first-ever sanctioned female MMA event with World Extreme Fighting.
Carano went up against Leticia Pestova. Carano won the fight in only 38 seconds.
Furthermore, on December 8, 2006, Carano also fought in the first female fight of Strikeforce: Triple Threat. She went up against Elaina Maxwell. Carano won the fight by unanimous decision.
Carano also fought in the Showtime EliteXC fight on February 10, 2007. It was the first female fight on Showtime that was aired on TV. She went up against Julie Kedzie and won.
Carano kept on fighting under a contractual agreement with Strikeforce. However, she retired from her MMA career in August 2009. Ever since, she hasn’t competed professionally.
Film and TV Career
In 2005, Carano starred in the cult movie “Ring Girls”. The film is based on a true story about 5 American women from Las Vegas who take on the greatest challenge of fighting the best Muay Thai fighters in the world.
In 2007, Carano appeared in the TV series “Fight Girls” where she is a mentor to aspiring fighters. She also played the role of “Crush” on the show American Gladiators.
Carano also appeared as a purchasable hero unit named Natasha in the game “Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3”. She portrayed a Soviet commando/sniper in different cut scenes of the game.
Carano played the leading role in the spy film “Haywire” in September 2009. Carano also appeared in the movie “In the Blood” in February 2012.
Carano is one of the casts of “The Mandalorian” in December 2018. It was the first live-action Star Wars TV series by Lucasfilm.
She played as Cara Dune in the series. She appeared in the 4th episode of the first season.
At first, Carano thought she would play the role of a female Wookie.
It was also announced in February 2021 that Carano will appear in the show Running Wild with Bear Grylls as a guest. In May 2021, the episode aired.
Personal Life
According to reports, Carano is believed to be in a relationship with Kevin Ross. He is a professional Muay Thai fighter and her long-time boyfriend.
Carano is believed to have been with Ross since June 2015. They were in a relationship for 4 years and got separated for almost 10 years. However, they got back together again. This is according to rumors.
Controversies
In 2021, Lucasfilm announced that they will not be working with Carano anymore due to a series of controversial tweets.
These posts included tweets in which Carano mocked the use of face masks in the United States during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Carano also tweeted a couple of claims about voter fraud during the 2020 presidential elections. She was also accused of racism after she clashed with Twitter activists due to her lack of public support for the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
She was also accused of being transphobic after she added the words “beep/bop/boop” as her preferred gender pronouns in her Twitter profile. Later, Carano apologized and removed them.
Gina Carano Net Worth
Gina Carano has worked in a couple of popular movies and TV series. This includes franchises such as Deadpool and Fast and Furious.
As of today, Gina Carano has an estimated net worth of around $12 million. Most of her money came from the movies she acted in.
In addition to that, a couple of brands are sponsoring her. She has also done a couple of endorsement deals.
During her time in The Mandalorian, Carano was paid around $25,000 to $50,000 per episode. Of course, people should expect her net worth to increase in the future since she is a very successful woman.
