See Carmen Electra Celebrate Her Birthday By Dancing In A Bikini

Carmen Electra has just turned 50 years old. That's the kind of milestone birthday that may get some people down, but not Electra.

By Faith McKay | Published

carmen electra

Carmen Electra has just turned 50 years old. That’s the kind of milestone birthday that may get some people down, but not Electra. She has embraced the major birthday event with swimsuit videos and photos on her Instagram that have certainly drawn the attention of her fans.

You can see the first video Carmen Electra posted below.

PEOPLE quickly noticed that while Carmen Electra doesn’t mention it, the above video is actually a throwback, but not that far into the past. The above video was first taken when the model was celebrating her 49th birthday, so it is still an accurate depiction of how the former Baywatch star looks today at 50 years old. Both last year and this year, Electra is celebrating her birthday in Palm Springs, California. On the day, she shared another swimsuit photo to mark the occasion, which can be seen below.

With decades of fame behind her, and a lot of attention on her looks, Carmen Electra has opened up in the past about facing public criticism for her revealing looks. Notably, she’s pointed out that some of her past outfits that received the most criticism are now applauded. At the time she wore them, they were frequently called shocking and “too sexy”. In the late 1990s, she was seen wearing a lot of cutout dresses, which were criticized more than most of her daring looks. Today, that style has become popular. Carmen Electra told PEOPLE, “Now everyone’s wearing cutouts and being creative with that.”

For example, Carmen Electra rocked a very famous cutout dress while attending the MTV movie awards in the late 1990s. Recently, Kim Kardashian had a new dress made with Electra’s dress as the clear inspiration. Headlines questioned whether Electra would be offended by Kardashian remaking the dress, but Electra posted on social media saying that she took it as an excellent compliment. It makes sense that all these decades later, it might feel great to get a compliment like that after the criticism she received at the time for going too far with the look.

The actress known professionally as Carmen Electra was born on April 20, 1972 and named Tara Leigh Patrick. In her 50 years, she’s become a professional singer, model, media personality, and beauty icon. She has famously worked with Playboy, starred in several parody movies, and run across the beach in Baywatch. One of her recent business ventures is GOGO Skincare. She named the company after her song, “Go-Go Dancer“, which was produced by Prince. While her career has grown to include many titles over the decades, she actually got her start as a singer in Minneapolis. After meeting Prince in the city, they worked together to produce her first album in 1993.

Today, Carmen Electra runs a popular Instagram account, a skincare company, and has many appearances on reality television shows, including her recent time as a host on DOMiNO Masters. Hopefully, the 50 year old had as much fun on her milestone birthday as she appeared to via social media.