Betty Okino is the daughter of a Ugandan father and Romanian mother. She got the first taste of the limelight performing in tap dance competitions with her brother (for which they won several awards). Mary Lou Retton inspired her to go into gymnastics where she excelled, turning elite at the age of 13.

In the 1991 World Championships in Indiana she performed an extremely difficult maneuver that went on to be named “The Okino” (it was a triple pirouette on the balance beam). She is a woman of grit and substance, helping her team win a medal in spite of a doctor’s warning due to 2 stress fractures in her L3 and L4 verterbrae.

Never one to stay stagnant, she went on to get a degree in broadcast journalism, performed in Sea World’s World Rhythm on Ice, acted in a number of television shows, guest starred in the Warner Brothers teen show Popular, appeared in a number of episodes of ABC’s Push and danced with Celine Dion on the ’99 Billboard Awards.

Currently, Okino can be seen as the host of the Disney Channel’s “Z-Games.” She also has appeared in several commercials, including one for Direct TV with Drew Carey, and has role on MTV’s show Undressed. She is fluent in Romanian