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Erika Maya Eleniak (born September 29, 1969) is an American Playboy Playmate and actress, perhaps best known for her role in Baywatch as Shauni McClain.

Biography

Eleniak was born in Glendale, California. She is the eldest daughter in her family of four girls and one boy whose parents divorced. Her father, who was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is of Ukrainian descent, and her mother is of Estonian and German ancestry.¹ During the late 1970s, Eleniak's father introduced her to her future career in the movie industry when his then girlfriend got Eleniak a part to model children's clothing for TV commercials. Her first acting role was in the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - as the girl kissed by Elliott in the school classroom scene. Eleniak attended Robert Fulton Junior High in Van Nuys, California and graduated from Van Nuys High School. During her teenage years, Eleniak became a regular on the San Fernando Valley party circuit and she began to use alcohol and drugs regularly.² Steve Ferguson, a quadriplegic who socialized in the same circles as Eleniak, helped curtail her problem by introducing her to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1988 and helping her through her detoxification.³ Eleniak dated Ferguson for a while and there was talk of an engagement. However the relationship ended as Eleniak's mother married Ferguson's father instead.²

Personal life

Eleniak has dated some of Hollywood's most famous bachelors, including Scott Baio, and was engaged for a time to William McNamara. In 1997 she met her future husband, Philip Goglia. They were married on May 22, 1998, and she was Erika Eleniak-Goglia during their brief relationship. They resided together in Marina del Rey, California, until their divorce in 1999.

After filming Snowbound in 2001 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Eleniak fell in love with the city and with Roch Daigle, a key grip who worked on the set. Having wanted to leave Los Angeles for years (and feeling that commuting to and from her other choice, Telluride, Colorado, was prohibitively difficult), Eleniak purchased a home in Calgary, in part because Daigle lived there.⁴ The two married sometime in 2005 when Eleniak was pregnant. Six and a half weeks into her term, the pregnancy was discovered to be ectopic, which required emergency surgery days later. As is the case with classical ectopic pregnancies, it ended in miscarriage ⁵ but Eleniak soon became pregnant again, and bore a daughter Indyana in January 2006.⁶

Career

Television

Eleniak went on to have several small roles in television. She played Stephanie Curtis, Scott Baio's on-screen girlfriend in Charles in Charge (and was also his off-screen girlfriend), and Jamie Coburn in Broken Angel. In 1989 Eleniak decided that appearing in Playboy would help boost her career, and Ferguson put her in contact with a Playboy photographer. Playboy featured her on two covers and later as the centerfold in the July 1989 issue.

After an audition and three call backs, Eleniak won a role in Baywatch as Shauni McClain. Eleniak was the lead female character for three seasons until Pamela Anderson replaced her in 1992. While working on the series, Eleniak became romantically involved with Billy Warlock, who played Eddie Kramer, her character's boyfriend. He was the reason why Eleniak ended up leaving the show after only two seasons and 2 episodes of season 3.⁷ The two announced their engagement in 1993, but the relationship didn't last due to Warlock's jealous nature - he later confessed in an interview: "I can't bear anyone else to see her body".⁷ She also played the high-school girlfriend of Jesse (John Stamos) in a November 1990 episode of Full House.

Film

In 1992, Eleniak returned to film acting, playing Jordan Tate, a Playboy Playmate hired to do a striptease for the captain of a U.S. Navy ship, in Under Siege, a film that was one of the year's biggest hits. In the film, she is described as "Jordan Tate, Miss July 1989"—which is the month that Eleniak was Playmate of the Month. She plays a character that is supposed to be purely decorative but is actually intelligent, brave, and resourceful.

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 Chasers. William McNamara, one of her costars in this film, also became her partner in life. Eleniak went on to shoot another movie with McNamara, Girl in the Cadillac (1995). The two were engaged but never married. Eleniak also starred in an interactive game during 1995; she played identical twins in Panic in the Park (1995). 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). Eleniak has starred in a host of films, including 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 continues to act. She 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 2005.⁸

Eleniak has exhibited various weight issues throughout her life. At one point, she was underweight due to eating disorder and was once hospitalized because of laxative abuse.⁹ In recent years she had become overweight, and in 2006 was a participant on the fourth season of VH1's reality television series Celebrity Fit Club, on which overweight celebrities lose weight as part of a competition. She lost 31 pounds over the course of the show.

The '80s Movie and Music Fest Cafe

In 2006, she was given much credit for appearing on a British Comedy Podcast on iTunes: The '80s Movie and Music Fest Cafe, in which she discussed her career with presenters, Ross Dyer and Julian Bayes. She gave a light-hearted view of Baywatch and her challenge during filming of Celebrity Fit Club.¹⁰

Appearances in Playboy special editions

• Playboy's Great Playmate Hunt, February 1989 - page 55.
• Playboy's Playmate Review (vol. 6), July 1990.
• Playboy's Girls of Summer '90, August 1990 - pages 28-29, 67.
• Playboy's Wet & Wild Women, December 1990.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie vol. 25, May 1992.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie vol. 26, July 1992.
• Playboy's Girls of Summer '93, June 1993 - pages 54-55, 93.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie vol. 33, September 1993.
• Playboy's Nudes, December 1993 - page 9.
• Playboy's Playmates in Paradise, March 1994 - pages 24--29.
• Playboy's Girls of Summer '94, June 1994.
• Playboy's Nudes, November 1994.
• Playboy's Playmates in Bed vol. 1, January 1995.
• Playboy's Book of Lingerie vol. 43, May 1995.
• Playboy's Nude Celebrities, June 1995.

References

External links

• Erika Eleniak at the Internet Movie Database
• Erika Eleniak at TV.com
• Erika Eleniak at Playboy.com
• Erika Eleniak by Elman
• Interview about her moving to Canada
• Erika Eleniak interview