Erika Eleniak 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 Carrie, the high-school girlfriend of Jesse, 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.
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, Bordello
of Blood and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave, The Pandora Project with Daniel Baldwin, One
Hot Summer Night with Barry Bostwick, Final Voyage with Ice-T, Stealth Fighter, The Opponent,
Vegas, City of Dreams with Angelica Bridges, Second to Die, Snowbound, Betrayal and Shakedown.
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 of 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 References
External links Official website
Erika Eleniak at the Internet Movie Database Erika Eleniak at Playboy Online