Nikki Bella

Stephanie Nicole Chigvintsev (née Garcia-Colace; born November 21, 1983), known professionally as Nikki Garcia, is an American television personality and retired professional wrestler.

She graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002.

She then returned to San Diego for college where she played soccer for Grossmont College, but relocated to Los Angeles a year later, where she worked as a waitress at the Mondrian Hotel while trying to find an agent.

She then started modeling, acting, and doing promotional work.

She made her first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks.

Following this appearance, the Garcia twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy.

Nikki and her sister Brie were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search".

Nikki and Brie later participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but they did not make the cut.

She is best known for her tenure in WWE from 2007 to 2023, in which she performed under the ring name Nikki Bella alongside her twin sister, Brie, as The Bella Twins.

She is currently the host of the game show, Barmageddon.

In 2007, Garcia signed with WWE and was assigned to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling alongside her twin sister Brie, forming the duo The Bella Twins.

Nicole was signed to a developmental contract with her sister by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida.

At a FCW house show on September 15, 2007, Nicole and her twin Brie, called The Bella Twins, made their in-ring debut by defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee.

She quickly started a scripted rivalry with Neidhart and Crawford, competing in a series of matches against them throughout October 2007.

As a part of their on-screen personas, she and Brie would switch places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt.

She also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony.

She also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.

Starting in December 2007, she managed Derrick Linkin, however, the storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008.

She made her debut for the SmackDown brand in 2008.

She is a two-time WWE Divas Champion with her second reign of 301 days being the longest reign for the now defunct title.

She and Brie were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 as The Bella Twins.

Also during her time in WWE, she starred in the reality TV series, Total Divas, and she and Brie got their own spin-off, Total Bellas.

In her last few years in WWE, she only made sporadic appearances, but acted as an ambassador for the company.

After her contract with WWE expired in 2023, she and Brie announced that they would be retiring the "Bella" surname and would be returning to their legal maiden name of "Garcia" professionally, and reintroduced themselves as The Garcia Twins.

She and Brie then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008.

After Neidhart was called up to the WWE roster in April 2008, Milena Roucka took her place in the feud.

Nikki also competed in bikini contests, and wrestled against other competitors including Katie Lea Burchill and Daisy.

Nikki's last FCW appearance was on September 2, when she competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.

On the August 29, 2008, episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella, defeating Victoria.

She quickly began a scripted rivalry with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice, Natalya, and had a series of matches against them.

In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging and appearing revived, and then win the match.

On the October 31 episode of SmackDown, when Brie went under the ring, Victoria grabbed her legs, but a second pair of legs kicked her off, implying that a second person was under the ring.

The following week on SmackDown, Brie defeated Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out.

The twins then attacked them and celebrated afterward.

Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella, and the twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya.

Garcia ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Female 50 in November 2015, and was named Diva of the Year by Rolling Stone in December 2015.

She also won the award for Choice Female Athlete alongside her sister at the Teen Choice Awards in 2016.

Born sixteen minutes before her twin sister, Brianna, to parents Jon Garcia and Kathy Colace, Garcia-Colace was born in San Diego, California, and raised on a farm in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona.

She is of Mexican and Italian descent.

Keen soccer enthusiasts, she along with her twin sister played for the Scottsdale club in elementary school.