Alec Mazo (born April 5, 1978) is an investor at DGA Capital. He became known for his participation in the American edition of the reality television series ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'', the first season of which he won with partner Kelly Monaco. He participated in five seasons of the television show and four DWTS tours, produced live stage shows for casinos and executive produced a 70 city live stage tour in collaboration with Troika Entertainment (producer of Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Annie).

Early life

Mazo was born just 50 kilometers from Chernobyl, Ukraine into a Jewish family. He has been dancing since he was 5 years old. At age 12, he immigrated from the Soviet Union to San Antonio, Texas, and later to San Francisco, where his former engineer mother, Natalia, opened a dance school. Mazo helped run the school to make ends meet. His family moved from the former USSR as refugees, with nothing in their pockets.

Education and personal life

He studied computer science, and then cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley . After DWTS, Mazo went to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

to get his Alfred P. Sloan Masters in Management. He ran a production company specializing in live stage entertainment and television reality formats. He is currently a general partner at DGA Capital, investing in the capital markets. When he was a teenager, Mazo worked as the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the Genesis Dance Sport studio in San Francisco. Expanding the studio into Los Angeles has been one of his goals.Carol Banks Weber. "News for the week of 19-Sep-2005"; Soap Zone
/ref> He has one brother, Genya, who's also a ballroom dancer and has performed on the Dancing with the Stars tour. Alec Mazo is married to his long-time dancing partner dancer Edyta Śliwińska, a native of Poland. The couple have a son born in 2014 and a daughter born in 2017.

Career

Mazo appeared in the 1998 movie '' Dance With Me''. Mazo turned professional shortly before producers of ''

'' began their search for dancers to star on the show. Mazo won the first season of Dancing with the Stars with his partner, Kelly Monaco. Mazo returned to the ballroom on March 19 for Season 4, this time partnered with former supermodel Paulina Porizkova, but were the first couple eliminated. Despite being eliminated first, Paulina along with

Shandi Finnessey Shandi Ren Finnessey (born June 9, 1978) is an American actress, model, TV host and beauty queen. She is best known for winning the Miss USA title, as Miss Missouri USA. She previously held the title of Miss Missouri 2002 and competed in Miss Am ...

(Who was eliminated the very next week). Both hold a higher average than a few celebrities who lasted longer than them. Mazo appeared on the fifth season of ''Dancing with the Stars''. Mazo and his partner, supermodel

Josie Maran Johanna Selhorst "Josie" Maran (born May 8, 1978) is an American model, actress, and entrepreneur. Early life Josie Maran was born May 8, 1978 in Menlo Park, California. Her father is of Russian Jewish ancestry and worked in green home construc ...

, were eliminated on September 26, 2007, after the first week of competition, making it the second time in a row he was eliminated first. Mazo competed for the title with partner, Grammy Award-winning singer, Toni Braxton in Season 7 of ''Dancing with the Stars''. After six dances, Braxton and Mazo became the fifth couple to be eliminated from the season. In Season 9, Mazo was paired with Olympic swimmer, Natalie Coughlin. They were the fifth couple to be eliminated despite relatively good scores and received a standing ovation from the crowd and judges.

''Dancing with the Stars'' performances

With celebrity partner Kelly Monaco: 23.0 With celebrity partner Paulina Porizkova: 20.0 With celebrity partner

: 16.0 With celebrity partner Toni Braxton: 22.6 With celebrity partner Natalie Coughlin: 22.5

References

External links

Alec Mazo.com Official WebsiteAlec Mazo
- Alec's Myspace * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mazo, Alec 1978 births American ballroom dancers Living people People from Gomel American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Soviet emigrants to the United States People from San Antonio University of California, Berkeley alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Dancing with the Stars (American TV series) winners