Karen Byrne (born 30 May 1992) is an Irish

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

r and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

. She is known as being one of the professional dancers on the Irish version of

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 ...

Early life

Byrne was born in

Ballyfermot Ballyfermot () is a suburb town nw of the city aside Dublin, Ireland. It is located, seven kilometres (5 miles) west of the city centre, south of Phoenix Park, it is bordered on the north by Chapelizod, on the south by Bluebell; on the east b ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. She has been dancing since the age of six.

''Dancing with the Stars''

In 2017, Byrne was announced as one of the professional dancers for the first series of ''Dancing with the Stars''. She was partnered with

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

broadcaster,

Des Cahill Desmond Cahill (born 10 March 1959) is an Irish sports presenter and commentator with national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Cahill presents RTÉ television's GAA programme ''The Sunday Game'' and RTÉ's flagship weekend sports radi ...

. Despite being in the bottom half of the leader board throughout the entire competition, they reached the quarterfinals of the competition eventually finishing in 5th place. In 2018, Byrne was partnered with singer-songwriter, Jake Carter. On 25 March 2018, Carter and Byrne were named the winners. In 2019, Byrne was partnered with TV presenter and style entrepreneur,

Darren Kennedy Darren Kennedy (born 12 January 1981) is an Irish television presenter, entrepreneur, style expert and creative director from Dublin, Ireland now based between New York, Los Angeles and London. He has hosted television shows on Channel 5, BBC, ...

. They reached the fifth week of the competition, finishing in ninth place. In 2020, Byrne partnered with Olympic gold medal-winning boxer,

Michael Carruth Michael Carruth (born 9 July 1967) is a southpaw Irish Olympic boxer from Dublin. He is best known for winning the welterweight gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He turned Pro in 1994 but retired in 2000. Amateur boxing ;Ol ...

. The couple reached the fifth week of the competition, meaning Byrne finished in ninth place for the second year in a row. In 2022, Byrne partnered former professional cyclist,

Nicolas Roche Nicolas Roche (; born 3 July 1984) is an Ireland, Irish former professional Road bicycle racing, road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI WorldTeam . He has twice been national champion and has twice finished in the top ten of the Vuelta a Espa� ...

. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals, after a dance-off against Ellen Keane and

Ervinas Merfeldas Ervinas Merfeldas (born 18 August 2002) is an Irish ballroom and Latin dancer and choreographer. Early life Merfeldas was born in Celbridge in Kildare to Lithuanian parents. He attended Scoil Na Mainistreach. He has a younger brother. Care ...

. In 2023, Byrne partnered former rugby player, Shane Byrne. Highest and Lowest Scoring Per Dance ¹ These scores was awarded during Switch-Up Week.

Series 1 The IBM Series/1 is a 16-bit minicomputer, introduced in 1976, that in many respects competed with other minicomputers of the time, such as the PDP-11 from Digital Equipment Corporation and similar offerings from Data General and HP. The Seri ...

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 16.7; Place: 5th

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; Celebrity partner : Jake Carter; Average: 26.3; Place: 1st

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; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 16.5; Place: 9th

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; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 12.5; Place: 9th

Series 5

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 17.4; Place: 6th

Series 6

; Celebrity partner : Shane Byrne; Average: ; Place:

Personal life

Byrne was in a relationship with professional dancer, Wojtek Potaszkin for eight years. Since their time on the show together, Byrne has been dating her

Series 2 Series 2 could refer to: * Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model * BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 2 series, line of nV ...

partner, Jake Carter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Karen 1992 births Living people Ballroom dancers