Carlos Roberto Pena Jr. was born on August 15, 1989, in Columbia, Missouri. His father is of Spanish and Venezuelan descent; his mother is Dominican. He was raised in Weston, Florida. He attended Sagemont Upper School where he was a Cheerleader. He appeared in local productions of Grease and Man of La Mancha. He also had a role in a production of Titanic by the American Heritage School, where he attended before leaving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. During his run in Titanic he fell in love with singing and dancing.
Big Time Rush is an American pop boy band that formed in 2009. The band consists of Pena, Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, and Logan Henderson, all on vocals. Pena co-wrote the song "Oh Yeah" off of the group's first album, BTR. On the second album, he wrote "Invisible" along with Charley Greenberg, Cody Williams, Daniel Andrew Wayne, Jonathan Rotem. As of 2011, the band has released two albums, BTR and Elevate. They recently released their third album, 24/Seven, in which Pena wrote and co-wrote almost every song. He co-wrote "Picture This" with bandmate, James Maslow. Pena wrote "Lost in Love" for his wife, Alexa PenaVega. He also wrote the song "Na Na Na" on 24/Seven. In addition, BTR embarked on the Summer Break Tour, in support of the album.
It was announced on August 27, 2015, that Carlos PenaVega would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. His wife, Alexa PenaVega, was also announced as one of the contestants who would be competing against him on the show. His professional partner was Witney Carson. PenaVega and Carson reached the Finals of the show but were eliminated on Night 1 and ended the competition in fourth place.
