Derek Hough is an American dancer, choreographer, musician and actor. He was born May 17, 1985 at Salt Lake City Utah Time.  His Last name is pronounced “Huff”.  A world champion in Latin American Dance, Hough has appeared since September 2007 (Seasons 5 through 11) on the hit U.S. television series Dancing with the Stars, where he is currently the only three-time champion (with Brooke Burke, Nicole Scherzinger, and Jennifer Grey), two-time semi-finalist (with Jennie Garth and Joanna Krupa) and a Quarter-Finalist with Lil’ Kim.  Hough has earned three Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Choreography (2009and 2010) for his work on the show.

Hough made his first appearance on Dancing With The Stars in Season 4 (Week 6) as a guest instructor with Julianne and Apolo Anton Ohno. He then joined the cast of professional instructors in Season 5 of Dancing With The Stars and was paired with Jennie Garth. Hough and Garth competed in the semi-finals and were the ninth couple eliminated from the competition.  He had a special relationship with Shannon Elizabeth whom he broke up with later on.  They met when they were partnered together on “Dancing with the Stars” in Spring 2008.  His season 13 partner is Ricki Lake.

He moved to London at age 12 and lived there for 10 years studying with dance coaches Corky and Shirley Ballas, before moving to Los Angeles to star on DWTS.  He attended and subsequently taught at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

With a Height of 5′ 10″ (1.78 m), Hough’s first professional role was that of “Ren McCormick” in the musical adaptation of Footloose (1984) at the Novelo Theatre in London West End.  His sister Julianne Hough stars in the remake of said film as “Ariel Moore”.  Hough’s West End performance earned him a nomination as The Stuart Phillips London Newcomer of the Year in the Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Awards.  Hough made his Broadway debut on January 8, 2010, starring with Kym Johnson and Mary Murphy in Burn the Floor for the final four performances of the show’s Broadway run.

At age 18 he debuted in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, and stayed with the show for the final 6 months of its run at the London Palladium.  Hough is a former IDSF World Youth Latin Champion (2002) for Poland with Aneta Piotrowska. He has won the LA Outstanding Dancer of the Year and the New York Dance Alliance Outstanding Dance awards.

A founding member of the Ballas Hough Band (formerly Almost Amy) with longtime best friend and DWTS castmate Mark Ballas, Hough shares lead vocals, plays guitar and has several songwriting credits on the band’s self-titled debut CD, released by Hollywood Records in March 2009.  Hough is one of Bruno Tonioli’s panelists on BBC One’s DanceX, the first episode of which aired on July 14, 2007

Hough grew up one of five children in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.  He has four sisters, Sharee, Marabeth, Katherine and Julianne. His sister Julianne Hough is also a professional dancer.  All four of Hough’s grandparents were dancers, and his parents met while on a ballroom dancing team in college, in Idaho.  A son of Marianne Nelson and Bruce Hough, Derek’s mom is now together with his stepdad Aaron Nelson and his Dad with Stepmom Debra Hough.

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Dancing with the Stars professionals Derek Hough and Maksim Chmerkovskiy reportedly do not get along.   The recent Dancing with the Stars feud between Maksim Chmerkovskiy, 31, and Derek Hough, 26, appears to indicate an increasingly heated rivalry and an insider confirms that they hate each other.  Chmerkovskiy’s on-air spat with DWTS judge Len Goodman when the judge slammed his and Hope Solo’s routine fueled the fire between the two after Hough sided with the judge.  Chmerkovskiy lashed out, urged the crusty Brit to retire, and called the ABC series his show.  This information comes from the new Us  issue, in which the new pages which are hitting newsstands on Friday.

During an October appearance on ‘Good Morning America,’ he said that Derek Hough has been very supportive of his personal career on the show.  He added that when you say judges have been generous, with all due respect, if he had Nicole Scherzinger followed by Jennifer Grey followed by Ricki Lake, he would probably not be very upset with the judges either.  The former fiance of Karina Smirnoff made the statement after Derek commented on his fallout with Judge Len Goodman.  Derek said backstage after the show on October 24 that as a seasoned professional Maks should not do that and there is a certain amount of self-control he should have.

Hough said that he had a laugh about that then referred to a list of past champions at the studio where Chmerkovskiy was not included.  Chmerkovskiy has been partnered with stars whose skills were not as stellar: He came in 10th place with Misty May-Treanor, 12th with Denise Richards and 12th with Debi Mazar in recent years.   According to three-time winner Hough, he was looking at the plaque upstairs and said well, never mind.  Hough’s recent snide retort is just the latest in the pros’ lengthy feud.  A source close to the smash hit show said that the professional dance community is really small and the dancers have known one another their entire lives.  Now that the group is famous, it has added a whole other level of rivalry and competitiveness.

Adding intensity to the heated rivalry between the two was Hough’s sister and fellow dancer who briefly dated Chmerkovskiy.  A source close to the show said that Julianne told Maks she did not want to have a serious relationship.  Soon after, the Footloose star started seeing Ryan Seacrest and the bitter Chmerkovskiy retaliated by planting false rumors that Julianne was cheating in Ryan with Maks.

Another DWTS insider counters that Chmerkovskiy is no rumormonger and, in fact, Derek Hough is not the nice guy he seems to be on camera.  Derek is reportedly dating The Hills star Lauren Conrad for publicity and he is focused on becoming a huge star like Julianne.  Not sure we believe that either, since LC and DH are very, very low profile and he’s arguably a much bigger star than she is at this point.

The 26-year-old Derek Hough of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ got into a fender bender last Tuesday (October 18, 2011) after a party at STK restaurant in Hollywood, California.  Nobody was hurt in the incident and the actor’s Audi has only minor damage.  The pro dancer was waiting to valet his Audi when another man in a Porsche rammed him.  Hough almost called the police.  The star in a statement said to E! News said that the man hit him and then tried to kind of see kim, pretty much nearly hitting him again.  The star added that the man get out of his car and yells ‘Dancing With the Stars! Derek Hough!’  Hough was not flattered, he said he was kind of contemplating whether to call the cops or not but he decided not to. He explained that he did not want to make a scene in front of the paparazzi.

Hough just injured his shoulder last week that is why he is fortunate enough that the accident was not anything serious.  He said that his injury is getting much better explaining that it is funny because when he is hurt, it is when he is doing something stupid like putting on shirt.  The pro-dancer also said that his shoulder others him one morning which is excruciating and popped out in a second. He added that he would take it easy and see how it is but it is fine he just needs a nice lady to take care of him and that is all he needs.  He throws one on and he is like Boom! Nevermind, still not 100 percent yet.  The actor needs to do some reshoots of his upcoming dance flick, Cobu 3D.  He said he was planning to do a Broadway show but unfortunately, the scheduling did not work out.  He added that it is something he definitely wants to do.

When asked about Lauren Conrad, he said that definitely in the past couple of years he has been kind of very private and he will continue to be.  He just tries not to say anything.  The two have been spotted partying together along with some friends in the back room at L.A.’s Trousdale Lounge.  According to an onlooker, the two even hit the dancefloor where Hough had his arm around Conrad’s waist saying it is obvious that there was a lot chemistry between the two and confirmed that they shared a smooch.  Neither was embarrassed about kissing in public.

Derek Hough is a professional ballroom dancer. He has been victorious three times on Dancing with the Stars, winning season 7 with partner Brooke Burke. He also won season 10 of DWTS with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger and in season 11 with Jennifer Grey.  Derek returned to DWTS for season 13, partnered with Ricki Lake.  He is the brother of Julianne Hough, who has won twice and is launching a singing career – Derek also plays in a band – the Ballas Hough Band, or BHB for short.