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Majandra Delfino (born Marialejandra Delfino on February 20, 1981, in Caracas, Venezuela), is an actress and singer best known for her role as Maria DeLuca on the television series Roswell. Actress Majandra Delfino's career was only briefly derailed by the initial disapproval of her non-showbiz parents and the reluctance of casting agents to see past her somewhat exotic looks. Already an accomplished performer by age 12, counting among her credits an opening slot at a Bee Gees concert, singing along with Samantha Gibb (daughter of the famed family trio's Maurice Gibb) as part of the pop quartet China Doll (and later forming a duo), Delfino was also featured in the Miami Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker", as well as several community theater musicals. Delfino was nicknamed "Majandra" by her elder sister, Marieh, who is also an actress. Marieh couldn't pronounce her full name, and so the nickname stuck. She is half Cuban and half Venezuelan. She attended New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. She landed her first feature role in 1997, playing the elder daughter of a marine biologist (Kathleen Quinlan) in the children's feature "Zeus and Roxanne". Delfino quickly followed up with a regular role on the short-lived television sitcom "The Tony Danza Show" (1997). Here, the factors that helped her to land the role included both her developing acting skills and the uncommon looks that caused commercial casting agents to pass her by, as the attractive actress of Italian and American parentage's piercing eyes, full lips and blonde-streaked hair remarkably resembled Danza's real-life daughter. On the NBC series, Delfino portrayed Tina, the savvy, street-smart 16-year-old daughter of Danza's divorced sportswriter. While this role could have afforded the actress some enviable exposure, the disappointing five-episode run gave her little time to develop her character or build much audience recognition. Delfino started playing Maria Deluca on Roswell, and later went on to star in such movies and television shows as Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth, which did not receive major cinematic release. She also acted in Reeseville, Celeste in the City, The Tony Danza Show, and R.S.V.P., with Jason Mewes and Glenn Quinn. She played Trudi in the film State's Evidence, which covers the controversial topic of violence in schools. She lost to Mena Suvari for the role of Angela Hayes in the 1999 film American Beauty. The actress returned to the big screen with a role as Natalie, the sensitive and awkward star of the independent coming-of-age feature "The Secret Life of Girls", a 1999 comedy-drama co-starring Linda Hamilton and Eugene Levy as Natalie's parents, a dissatisfied hippie and a college professor dallying with students, respectively. That same year, Delfino also appeared in the festival screened drama "The Learning Curve" before landing a supporting role alongside Tiffani Thiessen and Coolio in Rhino Films entry into the horror spoof genre, "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th" (USA Network, 2000) and a cameo in the acclaimed "Traffic" (also 2000). Delfino also stars in a number of episodes of the NBC show Quarterlife, also shown on MySpaceTV, which started airing November 11, 2007. Her husband, Devon, has also written for the show. Delfino sang in several Roswell episodes, such as "Viva Las Vegas", "Cry Your Name", and "Behind the Music". In the summer of 2000, Delfino released three songs onto the internet, Siren, Bruises and Tattoo, and wrote and produced them in association with "Sci-Fi Lullaby". On October 31, 2001, Delfino released the EP The Sicks on her own label, Dripfeed, without radio or television airplay. Producer/remixer Justin Lassen created an 11-remix suite with Delfino's masters from The Sicks that was never fully released due to red tape. She also received attention in France, through her duet with French chanteuse RoBERT, entitled Le Prince Bleu D'Arthelius in which she sings both in English and French. Her second album, Tarte, was released on April 23, 2007, by her own record company, Red Velvet Cake Records, through her Web site and Amazon.com and can now be purchased through iTunes along with The Sicks. On October 6, 2007, Delfino married Devon Gummersall who starred in My So-Called Life and also played Sean DeLuca, the cousin of Delfino's character on Roswell. |
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