Born: October 28, 1962
Age: 62
Birthplace: San Francisco, California, U.S.
Daphne Eurydice Zuniga (born October 28, 1962) is an American actress known for her roles as Jo Reynolds on the Fox prime time soap opera Melrose Place, as Victoria Davis on The CW teen drama One Tree Hill, and as Princess Vespa in the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs.
Zuniga was born in San Francisco, California. Her father, Joaquin Alberto Zuniga Mazariegos, originally from Guatemala, was an emeritus professor of philosophy at California State University, East Bay. Her mother, Agnes A. (Janawicz), is a Unitarian minister, of Polish and Finnish descent. Zuniga became interested in acting in high school, performing in a variety of school plays. In her early teens, she attended the Young Conservatory program of the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco. After her parents divorced, Zuniga moved with her mother and sister from Berkeley to Reading, Vermont. She graduated from Woodstock Union High School in Woodstock, Vermont, in 1980. After high school, she studied theater arts at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Zuniga is best known for playing Jo Reynolds in the 1990s television series Melrose Place, Lynn Kerr in Beautiful People, Victoria Davis in One Tree Hill. 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 drama Stone Pillow in 1985, and was in the 1995 miniseries Degree of Guilt. She was one of many voice actors for the animated television series Stories from My Childhood (1998). Zuniga had a lead role in the miniseries Pandora's Clock (1996).
2004-2005, Zuniga 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 drama Nip/Tuck.
She starred in several made-for-television movies including Secret Lives (2005), The Obsession (2006), Christmas Do-Over (2006), Mail Order Bride (2008), and On Strike for Christmas (2010).
Zuniga reprised her role as Princess Vespa from the 1987 film Spaceballs, by voice-over in the television spin-off Spaceballs: The Animated Series. She also reprised her role from Melrose Place in an updated version, but it was short-lived, as the series was cancelled after just one season in 2009-10.
From 2007 to 2012, Zuniga appeared in the CW network series One Tree Hill. She played the cold-hearted mother Victoria Davis.
2015, she appears in guest starring role in the new VH1's scripted series Hindsight as Libby.
2016, Daphne cast in a new TV movie for PixL and Hallmark Channel, When Duty Calls, with Judd Nelson and Daniella Monet.
Zuniga's film work has continued in parallel with her television work throughout much of her career. Her first two movies were sorority slasher films The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) and The Initiation (1983, with 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 a lead in the 1987 Mel Brooks film Spaceballs, the 1988 film Last Rites opposite Tom Berenger, the 1989 films Gross Anatomy (with Matthew Modine), The Fly II (with Eric Stoltz), and Staying Together (with Sean Astin). She starred in Artificial Lies (2000), Enemies of Laughter (2000), Dog Gone (2003), A-List (2006) and Seducing Charlie Barker (2010), directed by Amy Glazer, and she starred in A Family Thankgving with Faye Dunaway. Most recently, she appeared in Gone Missing (2013), Monkey in the Middle (2014), Summer Forever (2015), A Remarkable Life (2015), Beyond Paradise (2015) and Who's Driving Doug (2016). Her upcoming projects include Search Engines (2016) with Joely Fisher, Those Left Behind (2016) with Jack Griffo and Heartbeats (2016), with director Duane Adler.
In 1994, Zuniga 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 Zuniga as a dark, edgy young woman becomes a visual fascination for LeBlanc as a clean-cut young man.
She co-produced and co-directed (with Steven Latham) the 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 starred in the scripted web series Novel Adventures, which premiered November 3, 2008 from CBS Interactive.
2015, short movie Occupy Alice starring Arden Rose and Will Peltz.
Her younger sister Jennifer Zuniga, also an actress, debuted in the film A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon (1992).
In 2004, Zuniga suffered from mercury poisoning, which she attributed to overconsumption of fish. She said she had eaten sushi four times in the week prior to being taken to the emergency room and that her symptoms included weak memory, headaches, crying spells, skin rashes, and mild depression. After her diagnosis, Zuniga stopped consuming fish.
Zuniga has supported several environmental campaigns. In 2009, she 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.
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 | The Initiation | Kelly Fairchild/Terry Fairchild | |
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 Logan | |
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 |
2008-2012 | One Tree Hill | Victoria Davis | 42 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 |
2012 | Changing Hearts | Christina Riley | |
2013 | Gone Missing | Rene | |
2013 | A Remarkable Life | Tracy | |
2013 | Signed, Sealed, Delivered (TV movie) | Andrea Shmeckle | |
2013 | Beyond Paradise | Elana | |
2014 | Monkey in the Middle | Olive | |
2015 | Summer Forever | Sophie | |
2015 | Hindsight (TV series) | Libby | |
2015 | Occupy Alice | Cindy Lowe | Short |
2016 | Who's Driving Doug | Alison | |
2016 | Search Engines | Kate | |
2016 | Those Left Behind | Shelly | |
2016 | When Duty Calls | Carol Lawton | |
2016 | HeartBeats |
Charities
Daphne Zuniga supports the following charitable cause: Environment.