The eldest of four siblings, Perry was born in Gainesville, Florida to parents of Portuguese and Venezuelan descent. She spent several years of her childhood in the Latvian SSR, where her father worked as a Christian missionary. Perry and her family remained in Latvia after it restored its independence from the Soviet Union in August 21, 1991. From an early age, Perry aspired to become a ballet Dancer like her mother. She attended the Riga Choreography School (the ballet school of the Latvian National Opera) and began dancing with the Latvian National Ballet at the age of 14.

While attending FSU, Perry began attending Florida State Seminoles football games with Jenn Sterger and several other students, cheering from the bleachers while dressed as "cowgirls". The students, known as the Florida State Cowgirls, entered the public consciousness after being acknowledged by commentator Brent Musburger during a game between the Florida State Seminoles and the Miami Hurricanes that aired on ABC in September 2005, with Musburger quipping "1,500 red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State".

In 2009, Perry joined No Means Yes, a girl group signed to Ne-Yo's record label comprising Perry (billed as "C.J."), Kat, Shea, and Tanu. The group released one single, "Would You Like That", and recorded two others ("7 Years Bad Luck" and "Burn Rubber") before disbanding in 2010. Perry later stated:

On the April 11 episode of SmackDown, Lana was solely drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. As vignettes hyping her televised return aired, Lana resumed in-ring competition under her new gimmick at NXT live events that same month. Lana made her return on the June 6 episode of SmackDown, unsuccessfully vying to compete in the impending women's Money in the Bank ladder match, while also igniting a feud with SmackDown Women's Champion Naomi. On June 18, Lana was defeated by Naomi in her first televised singles match at Money in the Bank. She went on to compete against Naomi two more times on the June 27 and July 4 episodes of SmackDown Live, where she was defeated both times. On July 23 at Battleground, Lana competed in a five-way elimination match to determine the number one contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship, where she was eliminated by Becky Lynch. At the Royal Rumble, Lana participated in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match as the 13th entrant, but was eliminated by Michelle McCool. In the first round of the WWE Mixed Match Challenge, Lana and Rusev defeated Elias and Bayley, marking Lana's first official win in WWE.

In June 2013, Perry revealed that she had been signed to WWE and was sent to their developmental branch NXT. She debuted on the October 23, 2013 episode of NXT, under the ring name Lana, scouting Alexander Rusev. On the November 6 episode of NXT, Lana became Rusev's "social ambassador", using a Russian accent and developing a character who majored in Foreign Affairs and Business and Social Media Marketing in college.

Perry married fellow WWE Wrestler Miroslav Barnyashev, better known by his ring name Rusev, on July 29, 2016. She had previously dated actor and former football player Isaiah Mustafa.