Erika Jayne
Erika Girardi (née Chahoy; born July 10, 1971), known professionally as Erika Jayne, is an American singer, television personality and actress.
Also recorded as Erika Girardi
Erika Jayne

Keith Dobbs · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- singer, reality television participant, actress, composer, businessperson and musician.
- Fields
- dance music.
- Education
- North Atlanta High School.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Erika Girardi (née Chahoy; born July 10, 1971), known professionally as Erika Jayne, is an American singer, television personality and actress.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Erika Jayne (born 1969) is an actress, businessperson and composer, among other activities, of American nationality. The actress was born in Atlanta.
Erika Jayne was educated at North Atlanta High School. The actress lived in Pasadena.
The work spans dance music. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Erika Jayne. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q867257 · wikipedia · Erika Jayne
In this article
Early life
Early life
Erika Girardi was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 10, 1971, to single mother Renee Chahoy. Her father left when Erika was 9 months old. She graduated from North Atlanta High School. At 18, she moved to New York City.
Acting and reality television
Acting and reality television
Her first two uncredited on-screen appearances were on the first season of NBC's legal drama series Law & Order as the first murder victim Suzanne Morton in the pilot episode "Prescription for Death" and as Tim Pruiting's girlfriend in "The Violence of Summer". She also had roles in independent films Alchemy (1995) and Lowball (1996). In 2015, she joined the cast of Bravo's reality television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for the show's sixth season. The New York Times estimated that she earned more than $600,000 for the show's 11th season in 2021. In December 2016, she guest starred on The Young and the Restless with her former Real Housewives cast member Eileen Davidson, who plays Ashley Abbott on the show. She returned as real estate agent Farrah Dubose for one episode in 2017 and two in 2018. In 2017, she competed on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars. She and her partner, Gleb Savchenko, were eliminated in week five. She was a red carpet host for the American Music Awards in 2017 and 2018. She co-hosted the pre-show for the 2018 Billboard Music Awards. In 2018, she competed on Lip Sync Battle. She lost to Taye Diggs. In 2019, she was cast as Roxie Hart in the Broadway production of Chicago. She debuted on January 6, 2020, at the Ambassador Theater and was due to stay with the show until March 29. Due to COVID-19, production was shut down and her last performance was March 11. Jayne reprised the role of Hart at the Ambassador Theater on January 20th, 2025, for a planned three weeks, but it was extended an additional two weeks, scheduled to perform through February 23rd. In March 2024, Bravo aired a two-part documentary, Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde, focusing on her 2023 residency at the House of Blues Music Hall in the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In the documentary, she said she had contemplated suicide during the darkest days of her legal struggles. "I thought about killing myself many times," she said, adding that her son talked her out of it. In 2025, Jayne competed in season thirteen of The Masked Singer as "Yorkie". She was eliminated in the "Group C Finals: Decades Night".
Music
Music
According to her autobiography, Pretty Mess, music producer Peter Rafelson came up with the idea of changing her name to "Erika Jayne." Jayne's first single, "Roller Coaster" was released on January 1, 2007. The song placed at number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Jayne's debut album, Pretty Mess, was released in the United States in August 2009. She released several standalone singles from 2010 to 2018, including number one singles "Painkillr" and "How Many Fucks." Throughout her music career, Jayne has performed at several gay nightclubs and LGBT pride events, including LA Pride. In 2018, she embarked on her first headlining concert tour, Erika Jayne Presents: The Pretty Mess Tour, visiting 13 cities across the United States. In April 2023, she announced Bet It All on Blonde, a Las Vegas concert residency at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay that ran select weekends from August to December 2023. On March 23rd, 2026, Jayne was announced as an opener for Kesha's 2026 "Freedom Tour". This is Jayne's second time opening for Kesha, providing a brief cameo during The Scissor Sisters performance of "Let's Have a Kiki" at the Inglewood, CA date of Kesha and The Scissor Sisters joint "Tits Out Tour".
Personal life and legal issues
Personal life and legal issues
While living in New York, she met Thomas Zizzo, who was working as a DJ at a club in Manhattan. The couple married in December 1991 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Soon thereafter she gave birth to a son, Thomas Zizzo Jr. He is a police officer in Los Angeles. After the couple divorced in 1996, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a singer. In January 2000, she married Los Angeles personal-injury attorney Thomas Girardi, who was 32 years older than her and was already twice divorced. They met in 1998 when she was working as a cocktail waitress at Chasen's, a Los Angeles restaurant where he was a regular. He was known for helping win the trial that made Erin Brockovich into a household name. In November 2020, she announced her separation from Girardi and filed for divorce. One month after the divorce announcement, the couple were named in a lawsuit for allegedly embezzling funds meant for families of the victims of the fatal 2018 Lion Air plane crash. Media outlets reported that the divorce could be a "sham" to hide assets. In December 2020, a Chicago-based law firm asked a federal judge to order Jayne to stop selling designer clothing online amid an effort to recover $2 million in money owed to clients. On December 17, 2020, a Los Angeles Times article alleged that Tom Girardi "stole millions of dollars from vulnerable clients", and improperly funneled more than $20 million of victims' compensation to EJ Global, a company set up to finance Jayne's entertainment and singing career. A documentary about the couple's highly publicized legal troubles titled The Housewife and the Hustler was released on Hulu on June 14, 2021. A sequel, The Housewife and the Hustler 2: The Reckoning, featuring Jayne meeting with victims of Girardi's, was released in February 2024. On August 31, 2022, a judge ruled in a $5 million civil fraud lawsuit that the plaintiffs could not prove Jayne had knowledge of or involvement in the alleged fraud. In August 2024, a federal court jury found Tom Girardi guilty of four counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced in June 2025 to an 87-month prison term, his expected release date is August 1, 2031, when he turns 92 years old.

Erika Jayne signing autographs outside the Ambassador theater in New York, NY on March 2, 2020 after a performance of the Chicago musical.
Louis Reed

Erika Jayne attending Kenzo Fashion Show during Paris Fashion Week 2023
Erika Girardi · https: Erika's Instagram.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Pasadena.
Residences
Atlanta.
Birth place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.BBC. Erika Jayne.
- 2.Agard, Chancellor. Newest Beverly Hills Housewives Erika Girardi Teases Run-In with Bethenny Frankel: She 'Kind of Let Me Have It'. People. December 15, 2015.
- 3.Collar, Matt. Erika Jayne Biography. AllMusic.
- 4.Bravo. Erika Girardi Hopes Her Relationship with Her Mom Is Something People 'Will Be Able to Relate To'. November 2020.
- 5.Erika Girardi on Painful Past — and Realizing She Was in a 'Wealthy Coma' After Marriage. people.com.
- 6.Erika Jayne's 'Pretty Mess': 7 Revelations From 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Star's Memoir. Entertainment Tonight.
- 7.Low Ball (1997). Rotten Tomatoes.
- 8.Alchemy (1995). Rotten Tomatoes.
- 9.A conversation with 'Real Housewives' star Erika Girardi, our latest reality TV obsession. Los Angeles Times. March 9, 2016.
- 10.Goldstein, Matthew. The Real Trials of a 'Real Housewife'. The New York Times. October 9, 2021.
- 11.Get Ready, Genoa City: Erika Girardi Is Returning to The Young and the Restless in a Major Way!. E! Online. 2018-05-02.
- 12.DWTS: Erika Girardi Eliminated, Was Broken Before Final Breakthrough Performance. Peoplemag.
- 13.Erika Jayne Slayed the American Music Awards Looking Ultra Glam and Chatting with A-Listers . and We Still Haven't Recovered. Bravo TV Official Site. 2017-11-20.
- 14.Glicksman, Josh. Jessie James Decker, Erika Jayne & More to Host 2018 American Music Awards Red Carpet Pre-Show. Billboard. 2018-10-04.
- 15.Erika Jayne Got Revenge on Andy Cohen at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards. Bravo TV Official Site. 2018-05-21.
- 16.Has the "Very Cool" Erika Jayne Forgiven Taye Diggs?. Bravo TV Official Site. 2018-02-20.
- 17.Erika Jayne On Stage. New York Theatre Guide. 2024-03-28.
- 18.Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Erika Jayne Extends Return Engagement in Broadway's Chicago. Playbill. 2025-01-28.
- 19.Donnelly, Matt. Bravo Sets Two-Part Erika Jayne Doc 'Bet It All on Blonde': Watch Tense First Trailer. Variety. November 5, 2023.
- 20.Erika Girardi Reveals She Contemplated Suicide 'Many Times' During Tom Girardi's Legal Troubles. Peoplemag.
- 21.Schneider, Michael. 'The Masked Singer' Reveals Identity of Yorkie: Here Is the Celebrity Under the Costume. Variety. April 9, 2025.
- 22.Erika Jayne's 'Pretty Mess': 7 Revelations From 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Star's Memoir Entertainment Tonight. www.etonline.com.
- 23.Spotlight On Erika Jayne. Billboard. 2012-02-01.
- 24.Erika Jayne Announces Las Vegas Residency. Paper Magazine. April 19, 2023.
- 25.Gray, Mark. 'RHOBH' Star Erika Jayne Kicks Off Provocative Las Vegas Residency: 'It's a New Life'. Peoplemag.
- 26.Cardoza, Riley. Erika Jayne Shares Rare Pic of Son Tommy: 'People Say We Look Alike'. Us Weekly. May 5, 2020.
- 27.Slater, Georgia. RHOBH's Erika Girardi Defends Son Who Is a Cop on Social Media: 'His Job Is to Protect All'. Peoplemag.
- 28.Bravo TV. Erika Girardi Biography. Bravo. 2015.
- 29.RHOBH: A Look Into Erika Jayne's 'Unconventional' Marriage With Thomas Girardi. ScreenRant. November 13, 2020.
- 30.A Timeline of Erika & Tom Girardi's Relationship, from Friendship to Fame to a Surprise Split. Peoplemag.
- 31.Sobol, Beth. Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi Break Up After 21 Years Together. E! Online. November 3, 2020.
- 32.Judge freezes assets of famed L.A. lawyer Tom Girardi, citing millions unpaid to clients. Los Angeles Times. December 14, 2020.
- 33.Tom Girardi sued by Indonesia's Lion air crash families over claims US lawyer embezzled millions of their settlement funds ABC News, June 5, 2021. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- 34.Yasharoff, Hannah. Erika Jayne, Tom Girardi accused of 'sham' divorce announcement to hide from embezzlement lawsuit. USA Today.
- 35.Seidel, Jon. Chicago law firm wants contempt order enforced against Erika Jayne of 'Real Housewives'. Chicago Sun-Times. December 18, 2020.
- 36.The legal titan and the 'Real Housewife': The rise and fall of Tom Girardi and Erika Jayne. Los Angeles Times. December 17, 2020.
- 37.Erika and Tom Girardi's Legal Troubles Examined in The Housewife and the Hustler: Biggest Moments. People.
- 38.L.A. Times Studios and ABC News Studios Announce 'The Housewife and the Hustler 2: The Reckoning' Documentary. Los Angeles Times. January 31, 2024.
- 39.'Real Housewives' star Erika Jayne wins Tom Girardi fraud lawsuit. Los Angeles Times. September 2022.
- 40.Thomas, David. Lawyer Tom Girardi sentenced to 87 months in prison for wire fraud. Reuters. 4 June 2025.
- 41.Erika Jayne Dance Club Songs Chart History. Billboard.
- 42.Erika Jayne Chart History. Billboard.
- 43.Chart Search Billboard. billboard.com.
- 44.Roller Coaster - track. Muso.AI.
- 45.Stars - Original Version - track. Muso.AI.
- 46.Erika Jayne – Give You Everything.
- 47.Erika Jayne – Pretty Mess.
- 48.Erika Jayne – One Hot Pleasure.
- 49.Party People (Ignite the World) - Original Extended - track. Muso.AI.
- 50.Erika Jayne (Ft. Flo Rida) – Get It Tonight.
- 51.Painkillr - track. Muso.AI.
- 52.Erika Jayne – You Make Me Wanna Dance.
- 53.Erika Jayne (Ft. Maino) – Crazy.
- 54.Erika Jayne – How Many Fucks?.
- 55.Erika Jayne – XXPEN$IVE.
- 56.Cars - track. Muso.AI.
- 57.Erika Jayne – Drip Drop.
- 58.Erika Jayne – Bounce.
- 59.Brooke Candy (Ft. Erika Jayne) – Drip.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Erika de CasierPerson
- Erika EnderPerson
- Erika FoxPerson
- Erika HaasePerson
- Erika M. AndersonPerson
- Erika NorbergPerson
- Erika PluharPerson
- Erika SteinbachPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Erika Jayne?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.