Dina Spybey, also known as Dina Waters and Dina Spybey-Waters, is an American

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She has appeared in more than 20 films, including '' John Q.'', ''

subUrbia A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

'' and ''

The Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride, dark-ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called “Doom Buggies”, and a walk-through s ...

''. She is perhaps best known for her role as Tracy Montrose Blair on the first season of '' Six Feet Under''. She played "young Elise Eliot" in ''

The First Wives Club ''The First Wives Club'' is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson, based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith. The film stars Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton as three divorcées who seek retributi ...

'' and a ghost named Emma in

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's film ''

''.

Career

Spybey's early career focused on theater. In 1993, she appeared in the

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

play ''Five Women Wearing the Same Dress''. After three more off-Broadway productions, from 1994 to 1996, she made her

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

debut in a 1999 production of ''

The Iceman Cometh ''The Iceman Cometh'' is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 perf ...

'', at the

Brooks Atkinson Theatre The Lena Horne Theatre (previously the Mansfield Theatre and the Brooks Atkinson Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 256 West 47th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1926, it was desi ...

. Her first television role, in a 1992 episode of the after school special series '' Lifestories: Families in Crisis'', predated her first off-Broadway role. This performance, as

Becky Bell Rebecca Suzanne "Becky" Bell (August 24, 1971 – September 16, 1988) was an American teenage girl who died of complications from a septic abortion. After becoming pregnant, Bell inquired about a legal abortion but was hindered by Indiana state ...

in "Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story", earned Spybey the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special. Her appearances in film and on television escalated from 1996 onward. Spybey was the character Dottie in ''

Greg the Bunny ''Greg the Bunny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on Fox in 2002. It starred Seth Green and a hand puppet named Greg the Bunny, a character originally created by the team of Sean Baker, Spencer Chinoy and Dan Milano. Mila ...

'', was in the main cast for the first season of ''

Remember WENN ''Remember WENN'' is a comedy-drama television series that aired from 1996 to 1998 on the cable channel American Movie Classics, as the network's first scripted original series. Created and written by Rupert Holmes (with music also by Holmes) ...

'', and also played a stripper colleague of

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...

's in ''

Striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...

''. She played a supporting role in her husband

Mark Waters Mark Stephen Waters (born June 30, 1964) is an American director. Early life Waters was raised in South Bend, Indiana. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania in theatre arts before studying at the American Film Institute. When studying a ...

' film '' Just Like Heaven'' (2005). Spybey portrayed a ghost named Emma in the 2003

movie ''

''. She had a small role in Waters' ''

Freaky Friday ''Freaky Friday'' is a comedic children's novel written by Mary Rodgers, first published by Harper & Row in 1972. The plot is set in a day in the life of 13-year-old Annabel Andrews and her mother, who spend one Friday in each other's bodies. ...

''. She also appeared in the ninth-season premiere of ''

Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...

'' ("Don Juan in Hell") in 2001 in the role of Nanette Guzman,

Frasier Crane Dr. Frasier Winslow Crane (born ) is a fictional character who is both a supporting character on the American television sitcom ''Cheers'' and the titular protagonist of its spin-off '' Frasier'' and the latter's 2023 sequel. In all three s ...

's first wife. She was one of three actressesafter

Emma Thompson Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Emma Thompson on screen and stage, Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson, her accola ...

and before

Laurie Metcalf Laura Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress and comedian. Known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen, she has received various accolades throughout a career spanning more than four d ...

to play a specific point-in-time version of the character over the course of ''

Cheers ''Cheers'' is an American television sitcom, created by Glen and Les Charles, Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows, that aired on NBC for eleven seasons from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/C ...

'' and ''

''.

Filmography

Note: credited as Dina Spybey through end of 2000, credited as Dina Waters from 2001 onward, except a single 2019 film credit as Dina Spybey-Waters.

Film

Television

References

External links

* * * American television actresses Living people American film actresses Theatre World Award winners 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-screen-actor-stub American stage actresses