[5] Karina Smirnoff was born in Kharkiv,[1] Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union,[2][4] and is of half-Greek and half-Russian Jewish descent.

Smirnoff graduated from New York City's Fordham University with a double major in economics and information system programming.

[4] Early in Smirnoff's dancing career, she and Roman Nabatov competed as an amateur couple for USA.

[9] Smirnoff soon after started dancing with Paul Killick in October 1998 as a professional couple for England; this partnership ended in July 1999.

[15] Smirnoff was the project manager/director of a dancing event entitled "Day & Night", held on November 18, 2006 at the Hollywood & Highlands Grand Ballroom.

[19] Smirnoff was a performer on the third season of the ABC series Dancing with the Stars with celebrity partner Mario López.

Smirnoff returned to the show on March 19, 2007 for Season 4, this time partnered with Billy Ray Cyrus, country singer and Hannah Montana star.

In Season 7, she was partnered with chef Rocco DiSpirito and they were the fourth pair to be eliminated with a finish of 9th place for the second time.

In the eleventh season, she was partnered with The Situation from MTV's reality TV show Jersey Shore.

Smirnoff appeared on the thirteenth season of Dancing with the Stars, where she was partnered with All My Children actor J. R. Martinez.

Smirnoff became injured when she was performing a flip with partner Jones during rehearsals for their week 9 Lindy hop.

For season 17 she was partnered with former High School Musical actor Corbin Bleu and landed in second place behind Amber Riley and Derek Hough.

After taking a one-season break, Smirnoff returned for season 21 and was paired with professional jockey, Victor Espinoza.

Goodman had retired one year earlier in 2022, after the previous season, and passed away on April 22.2023 after a long battle with cancer.

[24] In October 2009, Smirnoff began dating Major League Baseball pitcher Brad Penny.

In April 2020, Smirnoff gave birth to her first child, Theo Gabriel, [30][31] with boyfriend Justinas Duknauskas.