Daphne Eurydice Zuniga (born October 28, 1962) is an American actress.

Early life

Zuniga was born in Berkeley, California. Her father is an emeritus professor of philosophy originally from Guatemala and her mother is a Unitarian minister of Polish and Finnish descent.^[1] Zuniga graduated from Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1980. She and her mother and sister moved from Berkeley to Reading, Vermont after her parents divorced. She became interested in acting in high school, performing in a variety of school plays. She attended the Young Conservatory of ACT (American Conservatory Theater) of San Francisco in her early teens. After graduating from high school she became a Theater Arts major at University of California at Los Angeles.

Career

Television

Zuniga is best known for playing Jo Reynolds in the 1990's TV series Melrose Place. However, her television career began nearly ten years earlier when she appeared in several episodes of Family Ties (1982-84) as a girlfriend of Alex P. Keaton. She also co-starred with Lucille Ball in the TV drama "Stone Pillow" in 1985 and was in the 1985 television miniseries Degrees of Guilt.^[2] She was also one of many voice actors for the animated television series Stories from My Childhood (1998). Zuniga also had a lead role in the TV mini-series Pandora's Clock (1996).

In 2004-2005, Zuniga also appeared in a recurring role in American Dreams.^[3] She was on the show Beautiful People on ABC Family in 2005-2006. In 2007, she starred in the fifth season premiere of the dramatic series Nip/Tuck.

She also starred in several made for television movies including Secret Lives (2005), The Obsession (2006), and Christmas Do-Over in 2006. Most recently, Daphne Zuniga starred in the made for television movie Mail Order Bride which premiered November 8th 2008 on the Hallmark Channel.^[4]

In early 2008, Zuniga began to appear on the CW hit show One Tree Hill (Season 5). She plays the cold-hearted mother Victoria Davis. Also, she is currently reprising the role as the voice of Princess Vespa in the animated spin-off of the 1987 cult classic Spaceballs called Spaceballs: The Animated Series.

Film

Her film career has continued in parallel with her television work throughout much of her career, though her film work has been less prolific than her television work. Her first movie was The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1981), followed by The Initiation (1983), and VisionQuest (1985). In 1985, she starred opposite John Cusack in The Sure Thing. Daphne next starred in the 1986 cult film Modern Girls. She was also a lead in the 1987 film Spaceballs, the 1989 films Gross Anatomy (with Matthew Modine), and The Fly II (with Eric Stoltz). A more recent starring role was in Artificial Lies (2000).

Other media

She was a guest celebrity in the 1996 Endymion parade during Mardi Gras.

She is co-producer and co-director (with Steven Latham) of the recently released (DVD, Netflix, 2007) documentary "The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED" - a look at the annual Technology, Entertainment and Designconference held in Monterey, California.

In February and March 2008, Zuniga appeared onstage in a production of The Scene by Theresa Rebeck, at the San Francisco Playhouse.^[5]

She currently stars in the new webseries on CBS "Novel Adventures", premiere November 3th 2008.^[6][7]

Personal life

In 2004, Zuniga was the victim of mercury poisoning, the direct result of an overconsumption of fish--Zuniga admitted to eating sushi four times a week prior to her mercury poisoning diagnosis. As a result, the actress suffered from weak memory, headaches, crying spells, skin rashes and low grade depression. After her diagnosis, Zuniga stopped consuming fish and began to drink shakes rich in protein (specifically with glutathione) to cleanse her body of the mercury.^[8]

Until about 2002, Zuniga rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle in her spare time. She has been quoted as having sold it a "few years ago." She was also said to have allowed the body piercing through her navel to heal, attributing both those events in her life to "latent adolescence." Zuniga has also devoted a good amount of time promoting awareness about the earth, and campaigns to help keep it clean.^[9]

She has had romantic relationships with Billy Marti and Richard Olivier but has apparently never married.^[10]

Her younger sister Jennifer Zuniga is also an actress, debuting in "A Woman, Her Men and Her Futon" (1992).

References

External links

• The Official Daphne Zuniga Website
• Daphne Zuniga Picture Galleries

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