Dina Waters

A petite, stage-trained blonde adept at portraying naive or off-center characters, Dina Spybey Waters first came to prominence in and won a Daytime Emmy for the leading role of an underage teenager who has an illegal abortion in the based on fact HBO special "Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story" (1992). She shone in the regular role of ambitious radio actress Celia Mellon in the AMC original comedy series "Remember WENN" (1996-97). Spybey made her feature film debut as a dizzy, Lolita-esque dancer alongside Demi Moore in "Striptease" (1996). That same year, she was another slightly ditzy character seen briefly in "Big Night," the young, flashback version of Goldie Hawn in "The First Wives Club" (1996) and later appeared as a member of the ensemble of Richard Linklater's "subUrbia" (1997), based on Eric Bogosian Off-Broadway hit.

Also in 1997, Spybey made a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom "Men Behaving Badly." The success of her portrayal of a nurse named Brenda led to the part becoming a recurring one for the remainder of the season and in the fall of 1997, she was made a series regular. That was followed by a regular role on the short-lived ABC sitcom "Cold Feet" (NBC, 1998) and a recurring role opposite Tony Shaloub on his sitcom "Stark Raving Mad" (NBC, 1999). Those roles led to a string of always-amusing television credits, including a recurring stint on the HBO drama "Six Feet Under" as Tracy Montrose Blair, the tightly wound ex-girlfirned of closeted David Fisher (Michael C. Hall), a regular role as the puppets' human co-star Dottie Sunshine on Fox's cult favorite comedy "Greg the Bunny" (2002) and enjoyable over-the-top girlfriend roles on "Frasier" and "Joey."

The actress also amassed an assortment of big-screen credits as well, appearing in supporting roles in the camp-minded Jacqueline Susann biopic "Isn't She Great?" (2000), the Denzel Washington thriller "John Q" (2002), director Steven Soderbergh's obtuse, arty ensemble drama "Full Frontal" (2002) and Disney's family comedy "The Haunted Mansion" (2003). In 2000 she married diretor Mark Waters and eventually changed her professional name to reflect their union. The two collaborated on several projects, including the telepic "Warning: Parental Advisory" (VH1, 2002) and the features "Freaky Friday" (2003) and "Just Like Heaven" (2005). In the later film, she delivered one of her best performances to date as Reese Witherspoon's protective, married-with-kids sister, veering adroitly between her trademark high-pitched comedic energy and convincing emotional moments.