Carmen Electra is still embracing her sex symbol status decades after she found fame in the '90s on Baywatch.
The 54-year-old looked younger than her years at the 2026 Dancers Against Cancer's Gala of the Stars in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Carmen ditched her blonde locks for a darker hue that perfectly matched her vampy red carpet look.
The actress rocked a black figure-hugging, floor-length dress that accentuated her curvaceous physique and featured a sheer corset top that flashed hints of her bare body underneath.
© FilmMagicShe wore her brunette hair down and curled at the ends, adding a smoky eye and glossy nude lips.
Sex symbol status
© Getty ImagesCarmen shot to international fame when she joined the hit lifeguard series in 1997 as Lani McKenzie, following in the footsteps of Pamela Anderson and becoming one of the show's most recognizable stars.
Born Tara Leigh Patrick, Carmen began her career as a singer after moving to Minneapolis and catching the attention of Prince, who gave her the stage name Carmen Electra. But it was her appearances in Playboy, followed by Baywatch and MTV's Singled Out, that transformed her into one of the defining pin-ups of the late '90s.
© Getty ImagesHowever, Carmen didn't see herself as a sex symbol and admitted she never felt objectified. "No, not really," she previously told Rolling Stone. "I chose that route because that's what I felt and I really didn't think of myself as a sex symbol.
"When people would say it, I would go, 'Really?' and I took that as a compliment. There are so many sex symbols that I looked up to then and look up to now."
Decades later, Carmen has embraced her status as a sex symbol rather than shying away from it. "I love being sexy," she previously told Fox News Digital. "I think it's empowering."
© InstagramMarriage to Dennis Rodman
Carmen's latest appearance comes just months after she made a candid confession about the end of her high-profile marriage to NBA star Dennis Rodman in 1999.
The couple married mere months after meeting in 1998 and became known for their wild antics and on-and-off-again romance.
"I just remember looking at myself in the mirror, I was at home, and I didn't recognize myself," she said on the Legally Goff podcast about when she decided to leave the marriage.
"I had bags under my eyes. My face was puffy. And I'm in my 20s, and I thought like, 'It's got to stop.' It has to stop."
"And a friend gave me a really good book, and it was like a self-help book, and I started reading the book, and I liked it," she continued.
"I would just walk in a bookstore and kind of blindly go, 'Okay, guide me and take me and take me for what I need to know.' I'd grab another book, and I'd just start sitting there, and I just thought, 'I've got to get away from him because what good is going to come out of this?'"
She added that while many believed her romance with Dennis was a publicity stunt, there were real feelings between them.
She recalled: "It wasn't a made-up story. It wasn't a publicity stunt. It was real love, and it's sad, but it had to end."
