Mark Ballas built one of the most decorated résumés in Dancing with the Stars history before Season 4 of The Traitors gave him a rare distinction of his own: he never received a single Round Table vote all season.
Mark Alexander Ballas Jr. was born May 24, 1986, in Houston, Texas, and comes from one of ballroom dance’s best-known families. Long before the castle, he was already one of the most successful professional partners in his show’s history.
His path there started not in a reality-TV audition room, but in a London dance academy his family moved across an ocean for.
Growing Up Inside a Ballroom Dynasty
Ballas moved to London as a young child when his family relocated so his parents, professional dancers Shirley and Corky Ballas, could pursue their own careers. He enrolled at the Italia Conti Academy of Dramatic Arts, training in acting, singing, dancing, and music from a young age, and started competitive dancing at six. By his teens he’d won the British Juvenile Ballroom and Latin American championship, the U.S. Open, British Open, and International Open Junior Latin American titles, and a Junior Olympics gold medal, a competitive résumé that made his eventual jump to American television dancing look inevitable in hindsight.
Three Mirrorball Trophies
Ballas has been a Dancing with the Stars professional since 2007 and has won the mirrorball trophy three times, partnered with Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in Season 6, gymnast Shawn Johnson in Season 8, and Charli D’Amelio in Season 31. That track record made him one of the most successful pros in the show’s history and a natural fit for a Traitors cast built around proven competitors.
| Season | Partner | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Season 6 (2008) | Kristi Yamaguchi | Won |
| Season 8 (2009) | Shawn Johnson | Won |
| Season 31 (2022) | Charli D’Amelio | Won |
A Second Career in Music and on Broadway
Beyond ballroom, Ballas has built a genuine second career in music as one half of the indie duo Alexander Jean with his wife, singer-songwriter BC Jean, who co-wrote Beyoncé’s “If I Were a Boy” before the two started making music together in 2015. Alexander Jean has amassed more than 200 million streams worldwide and released a new album in 2026, the group’s tenth year working together. Ballas has also moved into theater, most recently with a run in the Broadway production of “Chicago” that was set to close in August 2026.
A Clean Faithful Run
Ballas played Season 4 entirely as a Faithful and built early alliances with Kristen Kish, Stephen Colletti, and Eric Nam. He also joined a trust alliance nicknamed “the Dagger” with Kish and Rob Rausch, never realizing Rausch was actually playing as a Traitor the entire time. When Kish was murdered after correctly suspecting Eric Nam, Ballas voted with the rest of the group to banish Faithful Natalie Anderson instead. Despite staying connected to eventual Traitors and shifting alliances throughout the season, Ballas never drew a single Round Table vote, a genuinely rare feat in a game built entirely around suspicion. Rausch and Nam eventually chose him as their final murder target before the finale, and Ballas was murdered in Episode 11, finishing 6th of 23, one of the longer-surviving Faithfuls of the season.
Marriage to BC Jean
Ballas has been married to BC Jean since 2016, and the couple marked their 10th anniversary in 2026. Their son, Banksi Wylde Ballas, was born November 5, 2023. Ballas has said he’d be open to eventually sharing a Broadway stage with his wife, folding his theater ambitions into the same partnership that already produces their music.
Life Now
Since the season aired, Ballas has joked publicly about the idea of a future Dancing with the Stars pairing with Rausch, floating the image of the two of them in “rhinestone overalls” on the ballroom floor. Between three mirrorball wins, a decade-long music partnership with his wife, and a Traitors run where he was trusted by nearly everyone, including the eventual winner, Ballas has built a reputation across multiple competition shows as someone people simply don’t suspect of working against them. More on how the rest of Season 4 played out is covered in OpenThreadNews’ Traitors Season 4 cast guide.
