Daphne Zuniga

Daphne Zuniga
Zuniga at the Sundance Film Festival, 2007
Born	Daphne Eurydice Zuniga October 28, 1962 (1962-10-28) Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress

Daphne Eurydice Zuniga (born October 28, 1962) is an American actress known for her roles as Jo Reynolds on the Fox primetime soap Melrose Place, as Victoria Davis on The CW teen drama One Tree Hill and as Princess Vespa in Spaceballs.

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. Zuniga 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. Zuniga, her mother, and her sister moved from Berkeley to Reading, Vermont after her parents divorced. Zuniga graduated from Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1980. 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 1990s TV series Melrose Place. However, her television career began nearly ten years earlier when she appeared in several episodes of Family Ties (1984) 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. 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. 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 (2006). Most recently, Zuniga starred in the made for television movie Mail Order Bride which premiered on November 8, 2008 on the Hallmark Channel.

Since 2007, Daphne Zuniga is on the CW hit show One Tree Hill. She plays the cold-hearted mother Victoria Davis. Also, she was 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.

Zuniga reprised her role in an updated version of Melrose Place, but it was short-lived as the series was cancelled after just one season in 2009-10.

She played the lead role in the made-for-TV movie On Strike for Christmas in 2010.

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. Her first two movies were sorority slasher films The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1981) and The Initiation (1983) with The Bold and the Beautiful's Hunter Tylo, followed by Vision Quest (1985). In 1985, she starred opposite John Cusack in The Sure Thing. She next starred in the 1986 cult film Modern Girls. She was also a lead in the 1987 film Spaceballs, the 1988 film Last Rites, the 1989 films Gross Anatomy (with Matthew Modine), and The Fly II (with Eric Stoltz) and Staying Together (with Sean Astin). She also starred in Artificial Lies (2000), Enemies of Laughter (2000), Dog Gone (2003), A-List (2006), Christmas Do-Over (2006) and The Scene (2009), directed by Amy Glazer. She also provided the voice of the titular character in the English language version of the 1977 Russian animated film, The Magic Pony.

Other media

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

In the mid 1990s, she appeared in the release of a video for Bob Seger's previously released 1976 hit, Night Moves. In the video version of the song, she and a pre-Friends Matt LeBlanc are shown in a 1960s drive-in theater, where Daphne's dark, edgy young woman becomes a visual fascination for Matt's clean cut young man.

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 Design conference 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.

She currently stars in the scripted web series Novel Adventures, which premiered November 3, 2008 from CBS Interactive.

Personal life

Her younger sister Jennifer Zuniga is also an actress, debuting in the 1992 film A Woman, Her Men and Her Futon.

Zuniga has also devoted her time to environmental campaigns.

In 2004, Zuniga was the victim of mercury poisoning, which she attributed to an overconsumption of fish, saying she had eaten sushi four times a week prior to her mercury poisoning diagnosis. As a result, she suffered from weak memory, headaches, crying spells, skin rashes and low grade depression. After her diagnosis, Zuniga stopped consuming fish.

In 2009, Zuniga was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation, a not-for-profit development corporation charged with catalyzing sustainable development along the Los Angeles River.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Dorm That Dripped Blood, TheThe Dorm That Dripped Blood	Debbie
1983	Quarterback Princess	Kim Maida	TV movie
1984	Family Ties	Rachel Miller	Episode: "Double Date" Episode: "The Graduate"
1984	Initiation, TheThe Initiation	Kelly (Terry)
1985	Vision Quest	Margie Epstein
1985	Sure Thing, TheThe Sure Thing	Alison Bradbury
1985	Stone Pillow	Carrie Lang	TV movie
1986	Modern Girls	Margo
1987	Spaceballs	Princess Vespa
1988	Last Rites	Angela
1989	Fly II, TheThe Fly II	Beth
1989	Staying Together	Beverly Young
1989	Gross Anatomy	Laurie Rorbach
1989	Nightmare Classics	Irene Marlowe	Episode: "The Eyes of the Panther"
1992	Mad at the Moon	Young Mrs. Miller
1992	Prey of the Chameleon	Patricia / Elizabeth Burrows
1992–1996	Melrose Place	Jo Reynolds	110 episodes
1993	Eight Hundred Leagues Down the Amazon	Minha
1993	Hidden Room, TheThe Hidden Room	Elizabeth Mahern	Episode: "The Faithful Follower"
1994	Charlie's Ghost Story	Ronda
1994	Cityscrapes: Los Angeles	Chantal
1994	Models Inc.	Jo Reynolds	Episode: "Pilot"
1995	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Cinderella (voice)	Episode: "Cinderella"
1995	Degree of Guilt	Teresa 'Terri' Peralta	TV movie
1996	Pandora's Clock	Dr. Roni Sanders	TV movie
1997	Loss of Faith	Claire Hainey	TV movie
1997	Naked in the Cold Sun	Rini
1997	Johnny Bravo	Gabrielle (voice)	Episode: "I Used to Be Funny/My Fair Dork/'Twas the Night"
1997	Dead Man's Gun	Lillian / Tanya	Episode: "Black Widow"
1997	Stand-ins	Shirley
1997	Spin City	Carrie	Episode: "Hot in the City"
1998	Spin City	Carrie	Episode: "It Happened One Night"
1998	Stories from My Childhood		Episode: "Ivan and His Magic Pony"
1999	The Outer Limits	Juliette Kagan	Episode: "Essence of Life"
1999	Batman Beyond	Lula (voice)	Episode: "Once Burned"
2000	Batman Beyond	April (voice)	Episode: "April Moon"
2000	Artificial Lies	Karen Wettering
2000	Stark Raving Mad	Dr. Anne Russo	Episode: "Therapy"
2000	Enemies of Laughter	Judy
2003	Ghost Dog: A Detective Tail	Amanda Morton	TV movie
2003	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Emma Dishell	Episode: "Abomination"
2003	Eve	Mrs. King	Episode: "Twas the Fight Before Christmas"
2004–2005	American Dreams	Shelly Pierce	14 episodes
2005	Secret Lives	Jill Thompson
2005–2006	Beautiful People	Lynn Kerr	16 episodes
2006	A-List	Tina
2006	Obsession, TheThe Obsession	Deborah Matthews	TV movie
2006	Christmas Do-Over	Jill	TV movie
2007	Nip/Tuck	Carly Summers	Episode: "Carly Summers"
2007–2009	Spaceballs: The Animated Series	Princess Vespa (voice)	12 episodes
2008	Mail Order Bride	Diana McQueen
2008	Novel Adventures	Laura French	8 episodes
2008–present	One Tree Hill	Victoria Davis	35+ episodes
2009	Melrose Place	Jo Reynolds	Episode: "Windsor"
2010	Melrose Place	Jo Reynolds	Episode: "Santa Fe"
2010	Seducing Charlie Barker	Stella
2010	Family Thanksgiving, AA Family Thanksgiving	Claudia	TV movie
2010	On Strike for Christmas	Joy Robertson	TV movie

External links

• The Official Daphne Zuniga Website
• Daphne Zuniga at the Internet Movie Database