Irene Cara (born on March 18, 1962 in New York City, New York) is an American singer, Academy Award-winning songwriter and actress of African, Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing Flashdance...What a Feeling. She is best known for her recordings of the songs Fame and Flashdance... What a Feeling. ...show more

Irene Cara (born on March 18, 1962 in New York City, New York) is an American singer, Academy Award-winning songwriter and actress of African, Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing Flashdance...What a Feeling. She is best known for her recordings of the songs Fame and Flashdance... What a Feeling.

She also starred in the 1980 film version of Fame. Personal Her father Gaspar (died in 1994) is an Afro-Puerto Rican. Her mother Louise is of French and Cuban descent. She has 2 sisters and 2 brothers.

Married Hollywood stuntman Conrad Palmisano in 1986. They divorced in 1991. Her age has always been a confusing mystery by biographers who stated her birth year as either 1959 or 1964 from the day she shot to fame. In July 2004 the Associated Press claimed to have found her voter registration record in Florida, where she lives. ...show less