Erika Eleniak Biography

Erika Eleniak (born September 29, 1969) is an American Playboy Playmate and actress best known for her role in Baywatch as Shauni McClain. She also starred in the films E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Blob, Under Siege and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Early life

Eleniak was born September 29, 1969 in Glendale, California. She is the eldest daughter in a family of four girls and one boy. Her father, who was born in Edmonton, Alberta, is of Ukrainian descent and her mother is of Estonian and German ancestry. Eleniak's parents are divorced.

Eleniak attended Robert Fulton Junior High in Van Nuys, Los Angeles and graduated from Van Nuys High School. During her teenage years, She became a regular on the San Fernando Valley party circuit and began to use alcohol and drugs regularly. After a chance meeting with Steve Ferguson on a Santa Monica beach, he recommended that the 18-year-old Eleniak go to Alcoholics Anonymous and supported her in her recovery. Their relationship became complicated when Ferguson's father, Robert, married Eleniak's mother.

Career

Modeling

In 1989 when Erika Eleniak was 19, she asked Ferguson to put her in contact with a Playboy photographer. As a result, Eleniak appeared in the July 1989 issue of the magazine in a pictorial with a nautical theme.

Television

In 1989, Eleniak had a recurring role on the TV series Charles In Charge as Charles's girlfriend, Stephanie Curtis. That same year, she won a role on Baywatch as female lead Shauni McClain, which she played from 1989 to 1992, leaving after the second episode of Season 3. She also played the high-school girlfriend of Jesse (John Stamos) in "One Last Kiss", the November 16, 1990 episode of Full House.

Film

Eleniak's first feature film role was in the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial as the girl kissed by Elliott in the classroom scene. Her first film role as an adult was as Vicki De Soto, a victim of the creature in the 1988 horror remake The Blob.

In 1992, Eleniak returned to film acting, playing Jordan Tate, a Playboy Playmate hired to do a striptease for the captain of the U.S. Navy battleship, USS Missouri, in Under Siege. In the film, she is described as "Jordan Tate, Miss July 1989""?which is the month that Eleniak was Playmate of the Month in real life.

She attempted to capitalize on this success by starring as Elly May Clampett in the screen adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1993, but the film flopped. The next year, she starred in the Dennis Hopper-directed romantic comedy film Chasers. William McNamara, one of her co-stars in this film, also became her fiancé for a brief period. Eleniak went on to shoot another movie with McNamara, Girl in the Cadillac (1995). Eleniak also starred in an interactive game during 1995; she played identical twins in the 1995 video game Panic in the Park. She continued to make more independent films including A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995), Bordello of Blood (1996) and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave (1997), The Pandora Project (1998) with Daniel Baldwin, One Hot Summer Night (1998) with Barry Bostwick, Final Voyage (1999) with Ice-T, Stealth Fighter (1999), The Opponent (2000), Vegas, City of Dreams (2001) with Angelica Bridges, Second to Die (2002), Snowbound (2001), Betrayal (2003) and Shakedown (2002).

Reality television

Eleniak appeared as one of the cast members of the reality television series The Real Gilligan's Island for its second season, which started in June 2005.

Eleniak suffered from weight issues throughout her life. At one point, she was underweight due to eating disorder and was once hospitalized because of laxative abuse. By 2006, she was overweight, and became a participant on the fourth season of VH1's reality television series Celebrity Fit Club, on which two teams of celebrities compete to lose weight.

Other appearances

In 2006, she appeared on 80's Movie and Music Fest Cafe, a British comedy podcast on iTunes, in which she discussed her career with presenters Ross Dyer and Julian Bayes. She gave a lighthearted view of Baywatch and her challenge during filming of Celebrity Fit Club.

Personal life

Eleniak married Philip Goglia on May 22, 1998, but that marriage ended in divorce. After filming Snowbound in 2001 in Calgary, Alberta, Eleniak became enamored with the city. She also fell in love with Roch Daigle, a key grip who worked on the set. Having wanted to leave Los Angeles for years and finding commuting to and from Telluride, Colorado too difficult, Eleniak purchased a home in Calgary, where Daigle lived. Eleniak became pregnant in 2005, but six and a half weeks into her term, the pregnancy was discovered to be ectopic, which required emergency surgery days later. It ended in miscarriage, but Eleniak soon became pregnant again. Her first child, daughter Indyanna, was born in January 2006.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Notes
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1988	Broken Angel	TV film
	The Blob
1990	Daughter of the Streets	TV film
1992	Under Siege
1993	The Beverly Hillbillies
1994	Chasers
1995	Girl in the Cadillac
	A Pyromaniac's Love Story
1996	Bordello of Blood
1997	Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave	TV film
1998	Captive
	One Hot Summer Night	TV film
	The Pandora Project
	Charades
1999	Stealth Fighter
	Final Voyage
	Aftershock: Earthquake in New York	TV film
2000	The Opponent
2001	Vegas, City of Dreams
	Snowbound
2002	Second to Die
	Christmas Rush	TV film
	He Sees You When You're Sleeping	TV film
	Shakedown	direct-to-video film
2003	Betrayal
	The Librarians
2004	Caught in the Headlights
	Brilliant
	Fatal Lessons: The Good Teacher	TV film
	Dracula 3000	TV film
2005	Absolute Zero	TV film
	Fatal Reunion	direct-to-video film
2009	Imps*
	Just a Story
2010	Desperate Housewives
2012	Holiday Spin	TV film
2012	Meant to Be