Erika Eleniak was born on September 29, 1969 in
Glendale, a small suburb of Los Angeles where
she spent the first 10 years of her life. She got her
name from her Ukrainian great grand-father who
emigrated to the United States. Her parents got
divorced very quickly. Her dad, who came from
his native Canada with the dream of becoming an
actor in Hollywood, did not succeed. At the time,
he was going out with a lady working in film
production, who put Erika on the path to being an
actress. At 10, the petite blonde became a TV
star by modelling for a maker of children's clothes.
As an adolescent she moved on to doing
advertisements for shampoos and motorcycles.
Then Erika Eleniak plunged into drugs and
alcohol. Salvation came by chance on a Santa
Monica beach. She was only 17 when she got to
know Steve Ferguson.
When she was 18 he
signed her up to Alcoholics Anonymous and
helped her through her detoxification. The situation
became complicated when Robert (Steve's father)
and Erika's mother got married. There was even
talk of Erika's marriage, but she never married
Steve. In 1989 Erika wanted to be in Playboy and
asked Steve to contact her with a Playboy
photographer. He accepted Erika and she
adorned July '89 issue Playboy in a provocative
series of nautical studies. Year 1989 was very
important to Erika.
She won her seminal role in
Baywatch which demonstrated she can "do more
than just act the dumb blonde". While working on
the the Baywatch series, Erika met Billy Warlock.
Neither of them were single, but their friendship
slowly changed into love. He was the reason why
Erika ended up leaving the show only after two
seasons. But they relation hit the rocks, maybe
because Billy confessed: "I can't bear anyone else
to see her body". Her return to the movie scene
was shattering. In 1992, she came to public notice
in the movie "Under Siege" with Steven Seagal.
The film was a huge success.
She can be seen
again in "Chasers", with a scene that seems to
have made an impression on most of the masculine
population of the United States. William
McNamara, her partner in this film, was also in
her life. Her relationship with Billy Warlock, which
was considered solid, fizzled out, without anyone
really knowing why.
Then Erika filmed another
movie with William called "A Girl in the Cadillac".
Erika also tried what in takes to play in an
interactive game named "Panic in the Park", which
was to my opinion very poor. While she was
awaiting her charming prince, "I go out a lot with
many different friends, but there isn't one that I
would want to marry. Yet, I would like to get
married. I can easily imagine myself living on a
ranch in Montana with a family." she was filming.
She played in "A Pyromaniac's Love Story",
"Bordello of Blood", "87th Precinct: Heatwave"
etc.
Then in 1997 she finally found her prince. His
name is Philip Goglia and they got married in the
beginning of March 1998. Looks like Erika is
catching her second breath with as many as 4
projects scheduled to be released this year.