About Me

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Ola Ray was born in St. Louis, MO. where she spent the early part of her childhood with her parents, six brothers, and two sisters.

Her family moved from St. Louis to Sacramento, California until 1975 when the family moved to Tokyo, Japan where her stepfather was stationed at Yokota Air Force Base where she would spend the next three years.

It was in Tokyo that Ola began a professional singing and dancing career with her twin brother and sister. They called themselves The Puppets, and their musical talent was  good enough to land them a contract for the next year performing at the Big Together Club in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, a popular night club area.

The Puppets’ increasing popularity led to appearances in Television commercials, touring performances at various cities throughout Japan, and a recording contract offer from Sony Records in Tokyo.

Throughout Ola’s singing and dancing career in Japan, she also embarked on a modeling career where she was booking a substantial number of assignments with the Eddie Arab Modeling Agency. She modeled as a poster girl and appeared in several television commercials for such well known Japanese department stores as Daimaru, Isetan, Matsuya, and Parco.

After her successful stay in Japan, the family returned to the United States in 1978 where Ola decided to make Los Angeles her home base so that she could further pursue a career in entertainment.

In June of 1980, Ola appeared in Playboy Magazine’s June “Playmate of the Month” that helped her land an exclusive contract with Johnson and Johnson, promoting their ‘Classy Curl’ Kit products. She appeared in national ad campaigns that included magazines, TV commercials, and billboards. Ola became a brand ambassador for several other national campaigns including the ‘Milk” Ads for the Milk Advisory Board, Coca Cola, Coors, McDonalds, and Leggs Pantyhose, IBM, Kentucky Fried Chicken and she was the model-spokesperson for Shiseido Cosmetics in Japan, to name a few.

In 1983, Ola’s entertainment career skyrocketed when she co-starred as Michael Jackson’s girlfriend in the Grammy Award winning short music video film, ‘Thriller’.

Ola Ray’s name was known internationally for the video that is still considered the worldwide favorite music video of all time. Before Thriller came along, her first music video break came when she co-starred with George Benson in his ‘Gimme The Night’ release.

The doors opened for movie roles with Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Warner Brothers as well as network television work in series for the three networks at CBS, NBC, and ABC.

Her movies include appearances in ‘48 Hours’ with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte; ‘Night Shift’ with Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler; ‘Beverly Hills Cop 2’ with Eddie Murphy; ‘Ten to Midnight’ with Charles Bronson, and ‘Fear City’ with Billy Dee Williams and Tom Berenger. Ola also played a leading role in a television pilot that was a spin-off from the popular sitcom, ‘Gimme A Break’ for NBC.

Ola has written and produced several songs, one of which rose to No. 5 on the Top Ten Chart in Houston, TX, and she is currently writing television scripts while seeking a network or streaming deal for her series projects. Ola has also finished penning her memoir of her life and career in “Hollywood” called “The Thrill Of It All”.

The autobiography for Ola is not a “Kiss and Tell” book, but one she hopes a young woman will read and understand how to avoid the lure of fame in “Hollywood” often  means that of exploitation that can impact one’s life negatively if they don’t have a clear understanding of how the entertainment business works.

Ola is a tireless advocate for domestic violence and drug addiction awareness.