Dina Spybey Explained

Dina Spybey
Birth Date:29 August 1965
Birth Place:Columbus, Ohio, United States
Other Names:Dina Waters
Dina Spybey-Waters
Occupation:Actress
Years Active:1992–2019
Alma Mater:Ohio State University
Rutgers University (MFA)
Children:2

Dina Spybey (born August 29, 1965), also known as Dina Waters and Dina Spybey-Waters, is an American former actress. She has appeared in more than 20 films, including John Q., subUrbia and The Haunted Mansion. She is perhaps best known for her role as Tracy Montrose Blair on the first season of Six Feet Under. She played "young Elise Eliot" in The First Wives Club and a ghost named Emma in Disney's film The Haunted Mansion.

Education

Spybey attended undergraduate studies at Ohio State and then received her M.F.A. from Rutgers University at the Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Career

Spybey's early career focused on theater. In 1993 she appeared in the off-Broadway play Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.[1] After three more off-Broadway productions, from 1994 to 1996, she made her Broadway theatre debut in a 1999 production of The Iceman Cometh, at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

Her first television role, in a 1992 episode of the after school special series , predated her first off-Broadway role. This performance, as Becky Bell in "Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story", earned Spybey the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special.[2]

Her appearances in film and on television escalated from 1996 onward. Spybey was the character Dottie in Greg the Bunny, was in the main cast for the first season of Remember WENN, and also played a stripper colleague of Demi Moore's in Striptease. She played a supporting role in her husband Mark Waters' film Just Like Heaven (2005). Spybey portrayed a ghost named Emma in the 2003 Disney movie The Haunted Mansion. She had a small role in Waters' Freaky Friday.

She also appeared in the ninth-season premiere of Frasier ("Don Juan in Hell") in 2001 in the role of Nanette Guzman, Frasier Crane's first wife.[3] She was one of three actressesafter Emma Thompson and before Laurie Metcalfto play a specific point-in-time version of the character over the course of Cheers and Frasier.

Filmography

Note: credited as Dina Spybey through end of 2000, credited as Dina Waters from 2001 onward, except a single 2019 film credit as Dina Spybey-Waters.

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1996Big NightNatalie
1996StripteaseMonique, Jr.
1996SubUrbiaBee-Bee
1997Julian PoDee
1997Allessandra
1998Getting PersonalLiz Carderelli
1999Advice from a CaterpillarYoung Woman
2000Isn't She GreatBambi Madison
2002John Q.Debby Utleystarts using Dina Waters credit hereafter
2002Full FrontalThird Fired Employee
2003Freaky FridayDottie Robertson
2003Emma
2005Just Like HeavenAbby
2008Yoga MattBonnie PuttermanShort film
2019Chasing MollyJanetcredited as Dina Spybey-Waters

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1992Becky BellEpisode: "Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story"
1993CBS Schoolbreak SpecialLeanne StraussEpisode: "If I Die Before I Wake"
1996FBI ArchivistEpisode: "Pusher"
1996Remember WENNCelia MellonMain role (season 1)
1996–1997Men Behaving BadlyBrenda MickowskiMain role
1997GunGennyEpisode: "All the President's Women"
1998Conrad BloomNina Bloom #2TV series
1998Suddenly SusanGinaEpisode: "Don't Tell"
1998Fantasy IslandTinaEpisode: "Let Go"
1999Oh BabyShellyEpisode: "Lamaze"
1999Just Shoot Me!MeganEpisode: "Hostess to Murder"
1999Cold FeetJenny LombardiMain role
2000Stark Raving MadKatherine YatesEpisodes: "The Crush", "The Grade"
2001Six Feet UnderTracy Montrose BlairRecurring role (season 1); starts using Dina Waters hereafter
2001FrasierNanetteEpisode: "Don Juan in Hell: Part 2"
2002ReceptionistTV film
2002–2004Greg the BunnyDottie SunshineMain role
2005JoeyJudyEpisode: "Joey and the Valentine's Date"
2007Family of the YearBarbara AndersonEpisode: "Pilot"
2010Neighbors from HellMarjoe Saint SparksRegular role
2011CPA HolesAnnette WicksTV film
2013Modern FamilyArt TeacherEpisode: "Best Men"
2013Witches of East EndWoman in HospitalEpisode: "Pilot"
2015Salem RogersKarenTV film
2016SpeechlessJenniferEpisode: "Pilot"

Notes and References

  1. News: My worst moment: Ally Walker on tippling and acting . Nina . Metz . 2017-11-13 . . 12 September 2018.
  2. News: Lucci Loses Emmy for 14th Time : Television: She's beat out of best actress honors by 'Another World's' Linda Dano. CBS' 'Young and Restless' wins the best drama series award. . 1993-05-28 . . . 2023-01-25 . subscription . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210222135814/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-28-ca-40748-story.html . 2021-02-22.
  3. News: Kim Cattrall suggests Sex and the City replacements . Christine . Muchira . January 20, 2018 . . 12 September 2018 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20210921055117/http://www.kbc.co.ke/kim-cattrall-suggests-sex-city-replacements/ . 2021-09-21.