Photo: Tendancer / Wikimedia Commons (GFDL)
Val Chmerkovskiy is a Ukrainian-American professional dancer and two-time Dancing with the Stars mirrorball champion. The younger brother of fellow DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy, he stepped out of his brother’s shadow with back-to-back titles — guiding actress Rumer Willis to victory in 2015 and Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez in 2016.
Married to fellow pro dancer Jenna Johnson since 2019, Chmerkovskiy became one half of the ballroom’s golden couple. In October 2026 he made unwanted history as the first professional dancer ever suspended from Dancing with the Stars, benched for a week over an Oscars-slap social media post aimed at judge Carrie Ann Inaba.