Julianne Alexandra Hough (; born July 20, 1988) is an American dancer, singer, actress and television personality. In 2007, she joined the cast of ABC's Dancing with the Stars as a professional dancer, winning two seasons with her celebrity partners. After leaving the show in 2009, she returned in 2014 to serve as a judge, a position she held until 2017. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her work on the series, winning once in 2015 with her brother, Derek Hough.
Hough made her acting debut in the 2001 film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but played her first major role in the 2010 film Burlesque, which was followed with leading roles as Ariel in Footloose (2011), Sherrie in Rock of Ages (2012), and Katie in Safe Haven (2013). Hough portrayed Sandy in the 2016 live Fox television production of Grease. She also served as a judge on America's Got Talent for its 14th season. In 2022, she made her Broadway theater debut in the political farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. In the same year, she hosted The Tony Awards: Act One alongside Darren Criss. In 2023, Hough returned to Dancing with the Stars as co-host, alongside main host Alfonso Ribeiro.
Julianne Alexandra Hough was born on July 20, 1988, in Orem, Utah, the youngest of five children in a Mormon family. Her parents are Bruce and Marianne Hough; her father was twice chairman of the Utah Republican Party and ran for Utah's 2nd congressional district in 2023. Her brother, Derek, is also a professional dancer. She has three older sisters. All four of Hough's grandparents were dancers. She is the second cousin of musicians Riker, Rydel, Rocky, Ryland, and Ross Lynch from the band R5; their maternal grandmothers are sisters.
Hough's formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem. She began dancing competitively at nine. The next year, Hough's parents, who were divorcing, sent her and her brother to London, where they lived and studied with their coaches, Corky and Shirley Ballas, alongside their son, Mark. They continued their studies at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, and received training in song, theatre, gymnastics and various forms of dance, including jazz, ballet, and tap.
When Hough was 12, the three children formed their own pop music trio 2B1G ("2 Boys, 1 Girl"). They performed at dance competitions in the UK and the U.S., and were showcased in a UK television show. At 15, Hough became the youngest dancer, and the only American, to win both Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival. After returning to the U.S., she attended the Las Vegas Academy and Alta High School.
Hough was one of the Million Dollar Dancers in the 2006 ABC game show called Show Me the Money. She won season four of the U.S. edition of Dancing with the Stars with her partner, Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Apolo Ohno, making Hough the youngest professional dancer to win on the program. On November 27, 2007, Hough and her partner, three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Hélio Castroneves, became the winners of season five. Hough returned for season six with radio host/comedian Adam Carolla, but they were eliminated in week four. In July 2008, Hough was nominated at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in the category of "Outstanding Choreography" for her mambo "Para Los Rumberos" (performed with partner Hélio Castroneves) on Dancing with the Stars.
On August 25, 2008, the cast of season seven was announced, and Hough was partnered with Hannah Montana actor Cody Linley. She felt abdominal pains during their jitterbug performance on October 21, 2008, and she was rushed to a hospital 40 minutes after the encore performance. She subsequently had surgery to have her appendix removed after being diagnosed with endometriosis, causing her to miss several performances, Edyta Śliwińska stood in for her. Hough returned to the show, although the pair was ultimately eliminated in the semi-finals. She appeared on the November 12 results show dancing the jive to "Great Balls of Fire" with her brother for the "Design-A-Dance" contest.
On November 20, 2008, Hough was on Ryan Seacrest's radio show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest. She announced that, in order to further her music career, she would not be returning to Dancing with the Stars for the foreseeable future. However, she did return for one final time in season eight, partnering with country singer Chuck Wicks. They were voted off in week eight of the competition and came in sixth place. They then began dating after the season was over. On October 11, 2011, Hough returned to Dancing with the Stars and danced with her Footloose co-star Kenny Wormald twice, and with her brother. She returned again on May 15, 2012, in a dance performance to promote her film Rock of Ages. On October 7, 2013, she was guest judge in place of Len Goodman, which was the first time a former pro dancer came back to judge. In September 2014, she returned as a permanent judge on the panel, a position she held until 2017. She returned to the show as a guest judge in 2021, filling in for her brother Derek.
On March 20, 2023, it was announced that Hough would join Dancing with the Stars as the new co-host, following Tyra Banks's departure, and that previous co-host Alfonso Ribeiro would assume Banks's old role as emcee.
On March 18, 2014, Hough and her brother Derek announced a summer tour of over 40 cities across the U.S. and Canada, called "Move Live on Tour", which would include dancing and singing from both of them, and the appearance of a group of dancers employed by the Houghs who earned their jobs through auditions. They embarked on the sold-out tour on May 25, 2014, in Park City, Kansas, and ended it in Los Angeles on July 26, 2014. Due to the success of ticket sales and several sold-out venues before the tour had officially kicked off, several more shows were added to the tour schedule, which also sold out. For the tour choreography, the Hough siblings collaborated with Nappytabs.
Following the success of the 2014 tour and high demand, the Houghs announced the return of "Move Live on Tour" in the summer of 2015. Spanning from June 12, 2015, to August 8, 2015, the sold-out tour visited over 40 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, and visited larger venues than in the previous year. Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo "Nappytabs" returned as collaborating choreographers alongside the Hough siblings. Auditions were also held to recruit a new group of dancers to join the Houghs, although some back-up dancers from the previous year returned.
On December 14, 2016, they announced, via social media, that they would be going on a new tour, "MOVE BEYOND Live on Tour", in 2017.
Hough's first country-music single, "Will You Dance With Me", was released to iTunes and Wal-Mart in May 2007 to raise money for the American Red Cross. The song placed at number 100 on the Billboard Pop 100 chart. She later signed with Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury Nashville division.
Her 2008 self-titled debut album was recorded in Nashville and produced by David Malloy, who has worked with Reba McEntire and Eddie Rabbitt, among others. Hough's album, which met with mixed reviews, debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums chart on May 31, and also peaked at number three on the Billboard 200. Hough's second single, and the first to be released to country radio, was "That Song in My Head".
Hough joined Brad Paisley's 2008 Tour, along with Jewel and Chuck Wicks. Hough, Paisley, and Willie Nelson appeared in the video for the Snoop Dogg song "My Medicine".
Hough appeared in a Juicy Fruit commercial in the fall of 2008, and released an EP of Christmas music called Sounds of the Season: The Julianne Hough Holiday Collection. She performed her second single "My Hallelujah Song" on Dancing With the Stars on November 18, 2008, with her brother Derek Hough, Mark Ballas, and Lacey Schwimmer dancing.