Daphne O'Neal(I)
- Actress
- Writer
Daphne in late 2025-26 returned to her musical roots, appearing as a devout nun in For Life (2026) and a devious exec in Boiled Alive (2025), as well as in a yet-to-be-released music project. She did an hourlong improv with a seasoned comedian on The Mayor Show (working title). Daphne shot three TV movies in 2022, playing a doctor in Bodyguard Seduction (2022), an aunt in Aisle Be Home for Christmas (2022) and the US Vice President in DC Down (2023). She shot three TV movies in 2022, playing a doctor in Bodyguard Seduction (2022), an aunt in Aisle Be Home for Christmas (2022) and the US Vice President in DC Down (2023).
Born in Cleveland, Ohio and now based in Los Angeles, Daphne began her performing arts training with classical piano and theory at the age of 5. At 16, she participated in the Young Artists' Competition. Daphne started ballet at age 9, appearing in annual Nutcrackers, among other ballets, through high school.
A panel appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) marked the start of her on-camera career. Her love of opera and ballet, along with her Harvard degree, suited her to the tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a "snob." By the end of the show, Daphne had won over the skeptical Chicago audience.
Buoyed by the experience, she began auditioning for plays. First cast as the Postulant in The Sound of Music at Boston's Wheelock Family Theatre, Daphne went on to portray lead character Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare.
A few more successful stage efforts gave her the confidence to make the move to San Francisco where she booked her first commercial audition. In her initial indie pic, she played the overindulged, French-speaking daughter of acting idol Roscoe Lee Browne.
After a hiatus, Daphne returned to acting in the crowd-pleasing romance Robin's Hood (2003) and the animated, multiple-award-winning Ravishing Raspberry (2003)by writer-producers Shawnelle and Shawnee Gibbs. That same year, she sang Lead Alto in a chorus of 12 in Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha at San Francisco's venerated Stern Grove Festival.
In 2009, Daphne was the only San Francisco actor hired for Ranch Studios' Corruption (2010), headlined by Lee Majors, Michael Madsen and Joe Estevez. She played the terrified victim of a gun-toting terrorist, with megastar Yuji Oda, in the Japanese TV miniseries Gaikôkan Kuroda Kôsaku (2011) and achieved the long-held dream of playing a judge on film in the climactic final scene of the PBS short Refuge (2013). Refuge premiered to a sold-out house at Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and now lives at futurestates.tv as a Season 4 feature.
In 2016, Daphne played a TV reporter in the indie ballet feature Hope Dances (2017), dubbed into French as Ballerine à Tout Prix and into Spanish as El Sueño de Hope. She portrayed Marcus Cole's mother in Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why (2017).
Daphne voices film, documentary, animated and radio/TV projects and appears regularly in commercials. She has hosted live and taped PBS-TV fundraisers, among other programs.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio and now based in Los Angeles, Daphne began her performing arts training with classical piano and theory at the age of 5. At 16, she participated in the Young Artists' Competition. Daphne started ballet at age 9, appearing in annual Nutcrackers, among other ballets, through high school.
A panel appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) marked the start of her on-camera career. Her love of opera and ballet, along with her Harvard degree, suited her to the tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a "snob." By the end of the show, Daphne had won over the skeptical Chicago audience.
Buoyed by the experience, she began auditioning for plays. First cast as the Postulant in The Sound of Music at Boston's Wheelock Family Theatre, Daphne went on to portray lead character Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare.
A few more successful stage efforts gave her the confidence to make the move to San Francisco where she booked her first commercial audition. In her initial indie pic, she played the overindulged, French-speaking daughter of acting idol Roscoe Lee Browne.
After a hiatus, Daphne returned to acting in the crowd-pleasing romance Robin's Hood (2003) and the animated, multiple-award-winning Ravishing Raspberry (2003)by writer-producers Shawnelle and Shawnee Gibbs. That same year, she sang Lead Alto in a chorus of 12 in Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha at San Francisco's venerated Stern Grove Festival.
In 2009, Daphne was the only San Francisco actor hired for Ranch Studios' Corruption (2010), headlined by Lee Majors, Michael Madsen and Joe Estevez. She played the terrified victim of a gun-toting terrorist, with megastar Yuji Oda, in the Japanese TV miniseries Gaikôkan Kuroda Kôsaku (2011) and achieved the long-held dream of playing a judge on film in the climactic final scene of the PBS short Refuge (2013). Refuge premiered to a sold-out house at Tribeca Film Festival in 2013 and now lives at futurestates.tv as a Season 4 feature.
In 2016, Daphne played a TV reporter in the indie ballet feature Hope Dances (2017), dubbed into French as Ballerine à Tout Prix and into Spanish as El Sueño de Hope. She portrayed Marcus Cole's mother in Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why (2017).
Daphne voices film, documentary, animated and radio/TV projects and appears regularly in commercials. She has hosted live and taped PBS-TV fundraisers, among other programs.
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