Layla El

Layla El (born June 25, 1978) is a British professional wrestling diva of North African heritage, currently residing in the United States. She is employed by World Wrestling Entertainment, and appears on the ECW brand.

Before joining WWE in 2006, Layla El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines, the Miami Heat franchise of the NBA, and has also danced for Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Layla El first got in to the world of professional wrestling after her trainer suggested she try out for the $250,000 WWE Diva Search contest in 2006. During the contest she won a week's worth of "immunity" on the July 14 (taped July 10) edition of SmackDown! after winning Sgt. Slaughter's "Diva Boot Camp" obstacle course, despite having jumped over several tires in the tire hop section of the course and not having both of her feet cross the finish line due to her doing a split. She won another competition, the "Diva Search Talent Show," on the August 11 SmackDown!, when she danced dressed as a police officer. She won the entire Diva Search, beating out Jen England in the finals on August 16. She was the first non-American, first non-white, and oldest (28) winner in the history of the contest.

She made her first "official" WWE appearance at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view in a backstage segment with several other divas. During the segment the other women initially taunted and teased her before revealing that "it was all in fun" and part of an "initiation" of sorts. Afterwards they dragged her into the showers, fully clothed, where they proceeded to spank her while laughing.

The week after SummerSlam, El made her debut as a member of the SmackDown! brand in an interview with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin—although he didn't allow her the chance to say much, spending most of the time talking about himself.view After this she wasn't seen on WWE TV for weeks, reappearing during the September 22 SmackDown! and getting into confrontations with both Kristal and Jillian Hall. She again went missing for a number of weeks after this, resurfacing at October's No Mercy event and embarrassing the Miz by tricking him into getting a lap dance from Big Dick Johnson while he was blindfolded and expecting it to be from her as a birthday gift.

Layla made her official in-ring debut, a "Diva Trick-or-Treat Battle Royal" on October 24. The match ended in controversial fashion when she was pulled from the ring apron by The Miz, causing her to lose. This led to Miz and Kristal briefly teaming in a feud against Layla and the Boogeyman.

On January 23, Layla was moved to the ECW brand. On ECW she joined up with Brooke and Kelly Kelly as Extreme Exposé, performing a weekly dance segment with the group. Extreme Exposé danced weekly on the ECW show for months until the Miz was also placed on the brand, at which point all three ladies began actively pursuing him. When Kelly shifted her attentions towards the much more slovenly looking Balls Mahoney, Layla, Brooke, and Miz openly mocked her. On November 1, Brooke was released from WWE, and Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group and Layla and Kelly began a feud.