Biography

Madeline Zima was born in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents Dennis and Marie, and is the sister of actresses Vanessa Zima and Yvonne Zima. "Zima," a Polish surname, is her mother's maiden name; Madeline's maternal grandfather was of Polish descent, while her other ancestry is Italian, German, and Irish.

She and her sister Vanessa were discovered by Woody Allen for his movie, Alice (1990). Madeline had just given up on show business when she was urged to come in for her sixth call-back for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). She did one final audition and booked the role of Emma, and has never stopped working since. It was both Madeline and Julianne Moore's first film, which was directed by Academy Award-winning director and writer Curtis Hanson. Madeline earned critical notice for her first film role.

She followed the dramatic thriller with a short film that Daryl Hannah directed, a Sundance favorite called The Last Supper (1995). Madeline played a wily child who scares away her mother's abusive boyfriend by convincing him that she and her mother are cannibals. She followed that with the comedies Mr. Nanny (1993) and Our Song, a pilot with George Hamilton. By this time, the pilot of The Nanny (1993) was picked up, and Madeline moved from New York to L.A. when it became a hit show.

She went on to star in TV film The Secret Path (1999). Her sister, Yvonne Zima, played the seven-year-old counterpart to her characters. She played the daughter of the late John Ritter and Marg Helgenberger on Lethal Vows (1999).

After a worldwide search in all English-speaking countries, Madeline was the choice to play Lucille Ball as a teenager in the CBS mini-series Lucy (2003) (aka "Redhead"). She followed that by playing the wicked stepsister of Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story (2004).

In a return to television, she agreed to play the mysterious and destructive character "Mia" on the hit Showtime series Californication (2007).
- IMDb mini biography by: J. Stark