Early life

Canova was born Diane Canova Rivero in West Palm Beach, Florida to actress and singer Judy Canova and Cuban musician Filberto Rivero. She was raised in the Greater Los Angeles Area, where she graduated from Hollywood High School. Canova later studied acting at Los Angeles City College.

Career

Canova made her television acting debut in a 1974 episode of Happy Days portraying Richie's date who is taller than he. She later guest-starred on episodes of Chico and the Man and Starsky and Hutch and appeared in television films before landing the role of Corinne Tate on Soap in 1977, opposite Katherine Helmond. She remained with the series until 1980. In 1979, she made an appearance on Barney Miller as nude dancer/prostitute/graduate student Stephanie Wolf in "Strip Joint" (Season 6, Episode 6).

Later, in 1980, ABC executives offered Canova her own television series, starring alongside Danny Thomas in I'm a Big Girl Now. The show lasted just one season. She was cast as Sandy Beatty in Throb!, a sitcom which was broadcast in syndication from 1986 to 1988. In 1990, she played Maggie McCauley in an episode of Murder, She Wrote, entitled "Murder: According to Maggie". In 1993, Canova co-starred in the ABC sitcom Home Free. Since the mid-1990s, she has mainly done voice work for cartoons in video shorts. In 1995, she played "Jenny" in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company.

Personal life

Canova currently resides in Redding, Connecticut, with her husband, record producer Elliot Scheiner. The couple have two children.

Religion

Canova spent a number of years as a member of the Church of Scientology, an organization she later began to criticize. She found the Scientologists straightforward in their desire for money, declaring in 1993 in a Premiere magazine interview, "The first time I walked in those doors, they said, 'Just give us all the money in your bank account.'" She also criticized the Church's counseling practice, called auditing, when she said "They're telling you, 'Don't spend $100 an hour on a shrink's couch, it'll ruin your mind.' Auditing is so much better?"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]