Carrere was born Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo in Honolulu, Hawaii, the daughter of Audrey, a computer supervisor, and Alexander Janairo, a banker. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Hawaiian ancestry. Carrere longed to be a singer as a child. Although she was eliminated during the first round of her 1985 Star Search appearance at the age of 17, she was spotted by the parents of a local producer Read more...

Following this initial success, Carrere relocated to Los Angeles and, after working several months as a model, landed a first ever role in the U.S. TV series Airwolf in early 1985. Her first major break though was in the daytime soap opera General Hospital. She played the role of Jade Soong Chung from 1985 to 1987. She also had a guest appearance on The A-Team, which was supposed to lead to her Read more...

Carrere has continued to nurture her singing career. In 1993, her first solo album, Dream, was released, and went platinum in the Philippines. That same year, she was featured on the soundtrack of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, performing the ending theme, "I Never Even Told You". In August of 2003, Carrere was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Read more...