ABC’s Dancing with the Stars 2021 celebrity cast was announced today on ABC’s Good Morning America, live from Disney’s California Adventure.
The series, hosted by supermodel and businesswoman Tyra Banks, returns to the ballroom for its milestone 30th season. The cast joins Suni Lee and JoJo Siwa, both of whom were previously announced at ABC’s 2021 TCA Virtual Press Conferences last month. The new celebrity cast will debut their dance moves live on MONDAY, SEPT. 20 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EDT), on ABC. Watch episodes on demand and on Hulu the day following their premieres.
ABC announced the 15 pro dancers competing this season in an earlier announcement on GMA. Spoilers revealed every celebrity except Cody Rigsby (WHO??!!!) and Martin Kove. So good job, guys. DWTS won’t announce the official pairings until the show’s premiere, but there are spoilers so I’ll indicate them below.
Also, hosts Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer interviewed each of the cast members. Jimmie Allen brought the segment to a close with a special performance. Watch it below.
Dancing with the Stars season 30 Celebrity Cast
- Mike “The Miz” Mizanin (Witney Carson) – Pro Wrestler – While in college, he auditioned for “The Real World” and became a cast member of the show’s 10th season, “Back to New York.” It was on this show where he debuted his wrestling alter ego: “The Miz.” He also hosted various popular MTV shows, and competing on “The Real World”’s sister show, “Real World/Road Rules.” After moving to Los Angeles, he auditioned for the WWE’s “Tough Enough,” where WWE executives granted him a developmental contract.
- Matt James (Lindsay Arnold) – The Bachelor star – The first Black Bachelor on ABC’s 25th season of its hit romance reality series “The Bachelor.”
- JoJo Siwa (Jenna Johnson) – Dance Moms and The Masked Singer alum, star Influencer – She has over 60.5 million followers on social media and over 3.6 billion views on YouTube. In 2020, she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Next, Siwa will star in and executive produce “The J Team,” a new live-action musical premiering on
Paramount+. JoJo will make history as part of DWTS’ first same sex dance pairing. - Melanie C. (Gleb Savchenko) – Former Spice Girl – Spice Girls’ debut album “Spice” went on to sell more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the bestselling album of all time by a female group.
- Olivia Jade (Val Chmerkovskiy) – Youtube star embroiled in college admissions scandal. Her mother, actress Lori Loughlin, and father Mossimo Giannulli did jail time for paying to get Olivia and her sister admitted to college via fake resumes and test scores.
- Cody Rigsby (Cheryl Burke) – Peloton Instructor – He came to New York
after college and worked as a professional dancer on projects including Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Victoria’s Secret, ELLE Magazine, SNL and more. Cody is also a popular social media influencer, outside of being a well-known Peloton instructor. - Melora Hardin (Artem Chigvintsev) – The Office star – She played Jan Levinson, Steve Carell’s rigid, former corporate boss and love interest on The Office. She was Emmy®-nominated in 2016 for her recurring role of Tammy Cashman on Amazon’s comedy “Transparent.” Most recently she starred on Freeform’s The Bold Type.
- Suni Lee (Sasha Farber) – Olympic gold medalist – She is a three-time Olympic medalist, taking home the gold medal as the all-around champion in women’s gymnastics at the 2020 Olympic Games. She is also the first Hmong-American Olympian. Iman and family have a new reality series, “We Got Love Teyana & Iman” premiering August 2021.
- Iman Shumpert (Daniella Karagach) – NBA player – Drafted No. 17 by the New York Knicks in 2011, he played four seasons for the team. He went on to win an NBA Championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers and play for the Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and Brooklyn Nets. He is also an actor and a rapper.
- Amanda Kloots (Alan Bersten) – The Talk co-host, Widow of Broadway star Nick Cordero who died after battle with COVID – Amanda can currently be seen as a co-host of “The Talk.” She recently released her memoir, the New York Times bestseller “Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero” that was co-authored with her sister Anna Kloots. A former Broadway dancer and Radio City Rockette, Kloots performed on a variety of stage, film and TV productions for over 17 years.
- Martin Kove (Britt Stewart) – Kobra Kai and Karate Kid actor – Actor Martin Kove is best known for his iconic portrayal of villainous karate sensei, John Kreese, in “The Karate Kid” trilogy. Kove recently reprised his role for season two of Netflix’s breakout series “Cobra Kai” (based on “The Karate Kid” franchise and set 30 years later).
- Christine Chiu (Pasha Pashkov) – Netflix Bling Empire reality star – She is a co-owner and founder of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery and the Regenerative Medicine Aesthetic Institute, as well as the SPA at BHPS.
- Jimmie Allen (Emma Slater) – Country star, American Idol season 10 alum – He made history as the first Black artist to launch a career with two consecutive No. 1 hits off his 2018 debut album “Mercury Lane.” Recently, he performed with contestants during the Top 24 duets round.
- Kenya Moore (Brandon Armstrong) – Real Housewives of Atlanta star – is best known for her role on eight seasons of the highly rated and über popular reality series Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.” Also an entrepreneur, she has grown her hair care line, Kenya Moore Hair Care. In in 1993 when she became the second Black woman to be crowned Miss USA.
- Brian Austin Green (Sharna Burgess) – Beverly Hills 90210 star, Masked Singer alum. Also, he’s dating pro Sharna Burgess – He was recently seen on the reboot of “BH90210” on Fox, on which he also served as executive producer. He played the the sweet and naïve David Silver on the original series
