Being a veteran in Dancing With The Stars brings Cheryl Burke to fame. However, you would need to know where to search if you want to get all available information about a dancer.
Let’s not procrastinate anymore and get to the good part!
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Cheryl Burke Biography
Cheryl Burke was born on the 3rd of May, 1984. Her parents, Stephen and Sherri, gave birth to her under the influence of the Taurus sign.
The family resided in California, and most of Cheryl’s childhood was intimately attached to this vibrant place. Siblings Nicole Burke and Mandy Wolf are yet another important part of her early life.
Her parents come from Ireland, but she has Filipino origin on her paternal side, while her maternal family is Russian. Therefore, their household is multi-ethnic, which affects her dancing style as well as her beauty.
Cheryl was relatively hesitant to approach ballet when she started taking dance courses. At 10 years old, her journey with ballroom dancing finally began.
With an average height of 163 cm, her physique was considered ideal for Latin styles in general.
In 2002, she graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School with honors. With talent and knowledge, she was meant to achieve success in different fields.
Nonetheless, she followed her passion, joined the World Cup for Latin rising stars, and won the championship.
Not so long after, after an audition for ABC, she had her name written in the line-up and officially appeared on the show in its 2nd season.
It must be destiny between the American dancer and Dancing With the Stars, for she has been sticking to the show throughout these years.
Currently, Cheryl Burke’s Instagram has a hefty amount of 736K followers. They are proof and guarantee that she is and will still be a well-recognized dancer.
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Notably, in 2011, Cheryl published a book named Dancing Lessons and shared details about her life with readers.
It somehow surprised everyone with a very honest narration about Gerry Depaula abusing her when she was only 5 years old. The young Cheryl bravely testified against this handyman, though the grown-up Cheryl is still scared of him.
Cheryl tried her luck in 2015 with a clothing line named CeeBee of her own with attires for modern women. Later in 2020, she released a line of face masks with Bailey Blue and succeeded.
Once again trying a new position, in 2016, she created Love on The Floor, a live show where professional dancers and ice skaters shared heartfelt experiences in love. The premier in Tokyo, Japan earned $2 million from tickets.
This success convinced her to return to Japan in 2017, and it was the right decision.
In 2020, Cheryl and Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean hosted an iHeart Radio podcast titled “Pretty Messed Up” and discussed various topics such as mental health and sobriety. The giant podcast company then gave Cheryl her respective podcast, “Burke in the Game”.
Not only did DWTS give Cheryl her well-deserved fame, but the dance TV show was where she met Matthew Lawrence through his brother Joey, a fellow competitor.
The couple has officially been together from 2007 to 2018 before Matthew sealed it with a proposal and held their wedding ceremony one year later in California.
Sadly, the couple finalized their divorce in 2022 after three years of marriage.
Cheryl Burke’s Net Worth
In 2022, we estimate Cheryl Burke’s net worth to be approximately $4 million. She has a stable income of $500,000 per year.
She has been a star on Dancing With the Stars for years, and it guaranteed a decent sum for her.
Not to mention, with her successful production Love on The Floor, it’s quite obvious that she gained a lot from it too.
Outside of the dance floor, Cheryl wasn’t scared to experiment with fashion and launched successful projects.
As one of the most famous dancers in the US, it was never a surprise when she received many offers for promotions. The most significant sponsors are Impress Nails, Sargento Cheese, and Depend Silhouette.
Collaborations with these brands brought her about $50,000. The most valuable thing is she donates this sum to Dress for Success, a non-profit organization.
Dancing Story Of Cheryl Burke
Her first attempt at dancing was when she was 6 years old. But she wasn’t interested in ballet at that time.
Another 4 years passed before Cheryl found her passion for ballroom dancing. And her techniques have been consistently developed in both traditional and Latin styles. She was rather successful with competitive dancing.
Dancing With the Stars noticed Cheryl Burke after a talent scout by ABC channel, they immediately recruited her for the second season and paired her up with Drew Lachey.
The duo was phenomenal, earning them victory the first time they joined the competition.
Cheryl Burke’s Dancing Achievements
- World Cup Professional Rising Star Latin Championship, 2005: Champion.
- San Francisco Latin Championship, 2005: Champion.
- Ohio Star Ball Rising Star Latin Championship, 2005: Champion.
- UK Championships.
- Dancing With the Stars: Back-to-back Championships in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.
- Prime Time Emmy Award, 2006: Choreography Award.
- Annual Filipino Library Gala, 2007: Role Model Award.
- Asian Excellence Awards, 2008: Asia’s Favorite TV Personality.
- People Magazine’s Most Beautiful.
- Maxim’s Hot 100.
Theatre Experience Of Cheryl Burke
Cheryl Burke is not a theatre dancer, though we might get to see her experiment with it as a producer.
TV Show Experience Of Cheryl Burke
Most of us know Cheryl Burke from Dancing With the Stars, and it remains the most important part of her TV career.
However, she has minor appearances in other shows:
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, “Loosely Ballroom”: Cheryl played Shannon, a nurse who then volunteered to replace a competitor who couldn’t perform. Shannon and Esteban finally won the contest.
DWTS Ashly DelGrosso and Louis van Amstel also appeared in this episode.
- I Can Do That, 2015: Cheryl dominated the show from week 2 but lost to Nicole Scherzinger in the finals. Unfortunately, ICDT was canceled after only one season of broadcast.
- Dance Moms, 2017: Cheryl took over the position of Abby Lee Miller.
- Hell’s Kitchen, season 17: Cheryl was one of the VIP guests in the 9th episode.
- In 2016, Cheryl Burke became the producer of Love on The Floor and took the show to Japan.
Cheryl Burke & Dancing With the Stars
Born and thriving in America all her life, it was easy to tell Cheryl Burke’s career lay in the US edition of Dancing With the Stars.
She has been a consistent competitor from the 2nd season till now, only missing out on a few seasons due to personal reasons.
In season 2, she appeared in the show for the first time and won the championship right away with her partner, singer Drew Lachey.
Not satisfied with this success just yet, she claimed the second season. Here she won her second championship with Emmitt Smith, a retired footballer.
Although Cheryl was never the winner again in the seasons following up, she usually stayed in the top 10, except for a few rare occasions.
She dropped out of the top in season 9 (with Tom DeLay), season 11 (with Ray Lewis), and season 31 (with Sam Champion).
She came very close to the championship in the 8th and 13th seasons (ranked 2nd with Gilles Marini and Rob Kardashian, respectively).
Emmitt Smith, her partner from season 3, returned in season 15 and earned 4th place, which again proved the great synchronization between them.
In the long history of DWTS, Cheryl Burke was the first professional dancer to win a back-to-back championship.
Aside from the TV show version, Cheryl also participated in the DWTS Tour in 2006 – 2007, performing in 38 cities. The summer tour welcomed her appearance and visited 24 cities.
Since the tour occurred after her first season with DWTS, Drew Lachey remained her partner in all concerts too. During the winter tour later in 2007, she was partnered with Lachey once more.
| Season | Partner | Place |
| 2 | Drew Lachey | 1st |
| 3 | Emmitt Smith | 1st |
| 4 | Ian Ziering | 4th |
| 5 | Wayne Newton | 10th |
| 6 | Cristián de la Fuente | 3rd |
| 7 | Maurice Greene | 5th |
| 8 | Gilles Marini | 2nd |
| 9 | Tom DeLay | 13th |
| 10 | Chad Ochocinco | 4th |
| 11 | Rick Fox | 6th |
| 12 | Chris Jericho | 7th |
| 13 | Rob Kardashian | 2nd |
| 14 | William Levy | 3rd |
| 15 | Emmitt Smith | 4th |
| 16 | D.L. Hughley | 9th |
| 17 | Jack Osbourne | 3rd |
| 18 | Drew Carey | 8th |
| 19 | Antonio Sabàto Jr. | 8th |
| 23 | Ryan Lochte | 7th |
| 25 | Terrell Owens | 6th |
| 27 | Juan Pablo Di Pace | 5th |
| 28 | Ray Lewis | 11th |
| 29 | AJ McLean | 7th |
| 30 | Cody Rigsby | 3rd |
| 31 | Sam Champion | 13th |
Movies Experience Of Cheryl Burke
Cheryl Burke has been focusing on dancing even in TV shows, and the only acting gig she got was in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
Even then, she still played the role of a nurse with a hidden talent for dancing, who was obligated to participate in a contest and eventually won.
Last Words
And that was everything we had in hand about Cheryl Burke, the Dancing With the Stars veteran.
As the dancer openly refers to dancing as what makes her the person she is and always strives for great achievements, we’d better keep an eye on what she plans to do!