Dancing With the Stars 2026 Cast: Season 35 Celebrities and Partners

Dancing With the Stars Season 35 has a 16-celebrity cast for 2026, including Julia Stiles, Jenna Dewan, Tatyana Ali, Taylor Hanson, Giada De Laurentiis, Harry Shum Jr., Tyler Cameron, Maura Higgins and more. The season begins with a two-night premiere on September 15 and 16, 2026 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, followed by next-day streaming on Hulu.

Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough return as co-hosts, while Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough are back on the judging panel. The most useful way to follow Season 35 is by pairing, because the professional partner often shapes the style, training story and fan expectations around each celebrity.

Dancing With the Stars 2026 cast and partners

Meet the Dancing With the Stars Season 35 celebrities

Julia Stiles with Ezra Sosa

Julia Stiles enters the ballroom with Ezra Sosa. Stiles is best known for films including 10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance and the Bourne franchise. Her casting is one of Season 35’s clearest nostalgia hooks, and her screen background gives her strong performance instincts even though ballroom technique is a different challenge.

Jenna Dewan with Val Chmerkovskiy

Jenna Dewan partners with Val Chmerkovskiy. Dewan has extensive dance experience from her early career and her breakout role in Step Up, which immediately makes her one of the most discussed contestants. The question is not whether she can move, but how quickly she adapts her existing dance vocabulary to the specific posture, frame and technique expected in ballroom and Latin styles.

Tatyana Ali with Jan Ravnik

Tatyana Ali, remembered by many viewers as Ashley Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, dances with Jan Ravnik. Her participation also creates a fun connection with co-host Alfonso Ribeiro, her former sitcom co-star.

Taylor Hanson with Britt Stewart

Taylor Hanson competes with Britt Stewart. As one-third of Hanson, he brings decades of stage experience and musical timing. That does not guarantee ballroom success, but comfort performing live can matter once the competition moves beyond rehearsals and into voting pressure.

Ezra Frech with Daniella Karagach

Paralympic champion Ezra Frech partners with Daniella Karagach. Frech enters as an elite athlete known for adaptation, training discipline and competitive focus, all of which should make his rehearsal journey one of the season’s most interesting.

Amber Glenn with Pasha Pashkov

Figure skater Amber Glenn dances with Pasha Pashkov. Skating gives Glenn experience with musicality, edges, spins and performance, but ballroom asks for a different relationship with the floor and with a partner. That transition can be an advantage if she converts athletic control without relying too heavily on skating habits.

Connor Wood with Rylee Arnold

Comedian and podcaster Connor Wood partners with Rylee Arnold. His online persona and live-comedy experience make him a natural candidate for the entertainment side of the show, especially if the routines lean into character and humor early in the season.

Sarah Jane Nader with Hailey Bills

Sarah Jane Nader dances with first-time pro Hailey Bills. The pairing is notable as an all-female couple, and Nader has spoken about the importance of representation as she steps into the competition after watching her sister Brooks Nader compete in an earlier season.

Tyler Cameron with Sharna Burgess

Tyler Cameron partners with Sharna Burgess. Viewers know Cameron from The Bachelorette and his home-renovation work. He brings reality-TV familiarity and athleticism, while Burgess brings extensive DWTS experience.

Giada De Laurentiis with Alan Bersten

Chef and television host Giada De Laurentiis dances with Alan Bersten. Her casting gives the season a classic DWTS fish-out-of-water story: a familiar television personality stepping into a performance discipline far outside the work audiences normally associate with her.

Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson

Harry Shum Jr. partners with Jenna Johnson. Shum has a significant dance background from his pre-acting career and from projects such as Glee and the Step Up films. He is also connected to another article on the site through Voicemails for Isabelle, one of his more recent screen projects.

Conner Leavitt with Adele Zaikman

Conner Leavitt dances with Adele Zaikman. He is known to viewers through the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives universe and enters the show with a more unconventional entertainment résumé than several of the actors and athletes in the lineup.

Guillermo Rodriguez with Witney Carson

Guillermo Rodriguez partners with Witney Carson. The longtime Jimmy Kimmel Live! personality brings built-in comedy and audience affection, which can be valuable on a competition where memorable character-driven routines often matter as much as technical improvement.

Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas

Maura Higgins dances with returning pro Mark Ballas. Higgins is already familiar to reality-TV audiences through Love Island and The Traitors. Readers following the broader franchise can also see our Love Island Season 8 cast guide.

Ciara Miller with Brandon Armstrong

Ciara Miller partners with Brandon Armstrong. Best known from Summer House, Miller brings reality-TV experience and a strong existing fan community, which can matter once audience voting becomes a larger part of the competition.

Jackson Olson with Emma Slater

Savannah Bananas player and entertainer Jackson Olson dances with Emma Slater. His baseball work already mixes sport, performance and crowd interaction, so the ballroom challenge will be about turning that energy into controlled partnered dancing.

Who are the Season 35 hosts and judges?

Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough return as hosts. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough continue as judges. That continuity matters because the judging panel’s expectations are familiar even though the celebrity lineup changes every year.

Season 35 also arrives during a busy ABC fall schedule. For another returning ABC ensemble, see our Scrubs 2026 cast guide.

When and where to watch DWTS Season 35

The season opens across two nights, Tuesday September 15 and Wednesday September 16, at 8 p.m. ET. The broadcasts are simulcast live on ABC and Disney+, and episodes are available the next day on Hulu.

After the two-night launch, viewers should check the latest ABC schedule for weekly timing and special theme nights. Live competition schedules can shift around network events, so the official episode listing is the best source for exact broadcast dates.

Who has prior dance experience?

Season 35 includes several contestants with obvious movement or performance backgrounds, especially Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr. Amber Glenn brings elite figure-skating skills, while performers such as Taylor Hanson are comfortable on stage. That has already generated debate about whether some celebrities start with an advantage.

Ballroom veterans often point out that experience in another discipline does not automatically translate to ballroom or Latin technique. Frame, foot placement, partnering and the ability to learn a new style in a short rehearsal window can expose weaknesses even in experienced performers.

Which couples could attract the most attention?

Before scores exist, the most interesting pairings are usually the ones combining a strong fan base with either a compelling learning curve or obvious performance potential. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy will draw attention because of Dewan’s dance background. Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson have a similar technical-expectation storyline. Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas have reality-TV reach plus a veteran creative pro, while Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills carry a representation story that extends beyond weekly scores.

That does not make any of them an automatic finalist. DWTS seasons can change quickly once viewers see chemistry, improvement, injuries, choreography choices and how contestants handle live pressure.

How this page should be used during the season

Because the cast is now confirmed, this page is best maintained as the central Season 35 cast and partner guide rather than creating multiple overlapping URLs for the same keyword. As eliminations begin, the table can be updated with status notes, while separate articles should only be created for genuinely different search intent such as a controversial elimination, winner result or major injury.