Billy Blanks (born September 1, 1955) is an American fitness guru, martial artist, actor, and the inventor of the Tae Bo exercise program.
Blanks, began his study of the martial arts at the age of eleven. He quickly excelled, winning several local, state, and national championships. He emerged as a seven-time world Karate champion, and holds a seventh-degree black belt in tae kwon do. In the 1980s Blanks was a member of the United States MNAAU karate team. Blanks was "athlete of the year" in the USA Karate Hall of Fame.
Blanks began his acting career in the 1980s where he starred in several action-adventure feature films. In the late 1980s, Blanks invented the Tae Bo workout, while running a karate studio in Quincy, Massachusetts. He used components of his martial arts and boxing training. The name is a portmanteau of tae kwon do and boxing. Blanks opened a fitness center in Los Angeles to teach his new workout. He later attracted some celebrity clients such as Paula Abdul and the popularity of the workout quickly grew, becoming a pop culture phenomenon after Blanks began releasing mass-marketed videos. The popularity of the workout later waned, but Blanks still attracts many celebrity clients and Tae Bo videos and DVDs have continued to sell well.
Blank's series of Billy's Bootcamp workout videos are currently enjoying a huge success in Japan. Blanks was being received by huge crowds of fans on his recent promotional tour there, and has made many appearances on TV.
Most of Billy Blank's products are licensed to DRTV, as can be seen by the copyright info in the footer of www.billyblanks.com. DRTV is an infomercial product company included under the umbrella of Gaiam, a lifestyle brand media company with offices in Broomfield, CO and New York, NY.
Blanks was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the fourth of fifteen children. As a child he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia. Blanks is a Christian and released a special line of Tae Bo workouts called the "Believer's" series that includes motivational prayers and other Christian components. He has appeared on Christian television network TBN.
He has been married to Gayle (Godfrey) Blanks, whom he met in karate class, since 1974. Gayle's daughter, Shellie, was adopted shortly after they married and Billy is the only father she has ever known. Shellie Blanks Cimarosti is now an accomplished martial artist, is prominently featured in most all of Billy's Tae Bo videos and has recently done her own video (Tae Bo Postnatal Power) as well as hosted her father's new infomercial Tae Bo T3 (Total Transformation Training). They also have a son, Billy Jr., who has acted in a touring production of Fame and has started his own fitness video line called CARDIOKE.
According to a 1998 video, Blanks has worked with the following celebrities:
