Tia Carrere seemed to curse our interview from the start.

"Hopefully my iPhone doesn’t drop because I am right by the Apple campus," she said on the phone from San Jose, where she was performing a benefit concert. Two minutes later I was left talking to air. Fortunately the issue was soon resolved and the interview continued. Fans won’t have to worry about getting disconnected from the star when she appears at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo June 17th - 19th.

"I am excited to come up there, I haven’t been to Calgary in a long time. It is so nice getting the love, and they get to come up and take a picture [with] their children because they know me from Wayne’s World and their kids know me from Lilo & Stitch. It is multi-generational now and I keep sticking around," she said, adding that she really enjoys interacting with fans. "I have always said that this may be the one and only time this person meets you in their lives.  Do you want it to be a good experience or a negative one? We are so fortunate and blessed in that I get to do what I love, travel the world and meet so many people. It is my responsibility to be enthusiastic and charming when I meet people that are there to give you their love."

While some first saw Carrere on the series Airwolf in 1985 or as Jade Soong Chung in General Hospital, many first remember her as the schwing-worthy Cassandra Wong, love interest of Wayne in 1992’s Wayne’s World.

"It is crazy just thinking about how long ago it was, because it has gone by in a blink of an eye. I think it was like the Rocky Horror Picture Show of our time. It spawned a lot of phrases that people still use today like Way! No Way! and Shyeah, as if. I think I hurt my neck the last time I headbanged to Bohemian Rhapsody so I’m not going to do it anymore. Mike Myers is wonderful and a sweetheart, a really great guy. When I was auditioning the last one, he came up to me and said  . It just made a world of difference when I walked in the room, confidence wise. It was really, really great."

It was then on to 1994’s action-comedy True Lies. Carrere has fond memories of working for the James Cameron directed film, which also featured Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, and Charlton Heston.

"I just saw Jamie Lee Curtis in Beverly Hills. That is a classic movie it was dynamite. It was such a huge movie and it went on for such a long time, about a year to shoot. My little part as fifth banana was nine months of shooting from LA to Miami to Newport, Rhode Island, DC. I was all over the place. Arnold was terrific to work with and very fun loving. He had a crew of guys he has worked with for many years. My brother-in-law has actually been friends with him since 1972, his friends he keeps a long, long time."

From 1999 – 2002 Carrere played archeology professor Sydney Fox on the syndicated series Relic Hunter. The show took some creative license but blended history with action-adventure. It was mostly filmed in Toronto, and Carrere is now a permanent resident of Canada.

"The most fun was traveling the world on somebody else’s dime! I got to go to England and Paris and Spain and lived in Toronto 10 months out of the year. We shot 66 episodes of that show and it was so much fun. It was really a page from the Indiana Jones book, a little bit of education in the framework of an action-adventure show. I thought it was more of a kids show but I realized a lot of grown women really liked the show. Maybe it was the way I kicked around my sidekick – a strong dominant female with a sweet, adorable foppish sidekick along with the fantasy of traveling the world. So the fact that women loved the show more than children really surprised me. It was about being a maverick and not conforming to other people’s definition of what you should be."

Now it is not just people who loved Wayne’s World who are excited to meet her, but also their children. As Carrere already mentioned, she played the voice of Lilo’s sister Nani in Lilo and Stitch. The show spring-boarded her back to her musical origins. Many may not realize that Carrere is a multiple Grammy award winner.

"It was a return to my roots because I was born and raised in Hawaii and is why I got back into recording of Hawaiian music.  I sang a song in the film and went back and revisited with a childhood friend of mine, Daniel Ho. We did some famous Hawaiin songs on our first record (Hawaiiana) and were nominated for a Grammy. Our second album (Ikena) won, and then this year (Huana Ke Aloha) won me my second Grammy. I am over the moon, I have two of them! I just received mine about two weeks ago. It is everything I dreamed of, I always dreamed of being a Grammy winner, not being an Oscar winner. Music was always my love growing up. It all kind of started from singing for that film.  It took me back to where I came from and the innocence of my childhood."

She tours with longtime friend Daniel Ho, and will have her CDs available at the Expo.

"Daniel Ho and I have known each other since we were 14 years old. I went to an all-girl Catholic School and he went to an all-boys Catholic school down the street and music was the only place we could meet where we weren’t sinning. We started in jazz orchestra and entered talent contests together."

In short, Tia Carrere is an actress, singer, model, and Mom. It can be a challenge balancing all aspects of her life, but one she takes on with joy.

"I was up in Toronto working on a new show on ABC called The Hot Zone about a combat hospital in Kandahar starting June 15th. I was up there doing that show, came home to Los Angeles for less than 24 hours, then to Hawaii for some shows and Q&A’s.  So it was going from acting to home for less than a minute to singing."

She is looking forward to meeting some of her gay and lesbian fans at the expo.

"I love the gay fan base. I went to go visit with my old dresser Richard Ryder on Relic Hunter and he is now is a big gay DJ at Proud FM in Toronto. He and I went shopping on Church Street and went to Northbound Leather and bought me a fetish dress. He said let me take you to tranny closet, I need to hem up that dress for you. I met his friend Miss Conception who was doing a show that afternoon and it was all feather boas and sparkles. It was awesome."

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Contributor Jason Clevett |

Person Tia Carrere |

Topic Calgary Expo | Celebrity Interview | Comic Expo |