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Robia LaMorte

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Robia LaMorte
LaMorte in 2005
Born
Robia Brett LaMorte

(1970-07-07) July 7, 1970 (age 54)
Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actress
  • dancer
Years active1988–2005, 2018–present
Children1
Websiterobiascott.com

Robia LaMorte Scott (born 1970) is an American actress and former dancer who initially retired after converting to Christianity, becoming a counsellor and preacher of her new faith. She may be best known as a dancer and spokesperson for musician Prince, or for appearing as Jenny Calendar in 14 episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Early life

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Scott was born in the New York City borough of Queens in 1970 and grew up in several locations including the Florida Keys and Ocean City, Maryland. She is named after her father, Robert LaMorte. After being inspired by the 1983 movie Flashdance, she began dancing and taking after-school lessons in jazz dance, ballet, and tap dance. She attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a dance major during the school's first year of operation, and then received a full scholarship to the Dupree Dance Academy in Hollywood. At sixteen, she began working as a backup dancer in music videos, first appearing in Debbie Gibson's "Shake Your Love".

Career

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After having appeared in more than thirty music videos and toured in a six-dancer troupe with the Pet Shop Boys, LaMorte was picked by Prince to be one of two lead dancers for the music video for "Cream", a single from his 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls.[1] Prince had originally sought identical twins, but chose LaMorte along with another dancer, Lori Elle, because of their similar appearance and the dance chemistry they had with him. Elle as "Diamond" and LaMorte as "Pearl" subsequently appeared in the videos for "Cream", "Gett Off", "Strollin'", and the album's title track, as well as on the album's holographic cover itself. LaMorte and Elle then toured Europe with Prince, and when he temporarily refused to do any public speaking, the two women served as his spokespersons and conducted the main promotional efforts for Diamonds and Pearls. Elle would later go on tour with Ricky Martin and Michael Jackson.

At the age of 22, LaMorte retired from dance and turned to acting. After doing numerous television commercials, she landed the role of Jason Priestley's girlfriend Jill Fleming on Beverly Hills, 90210 in two episodes and played the female lead (alongside Andrew Bowen) in the live action video game Fox Hunt.[2] Her first regular role was as high school teacher and technopagan Jenny Calendar on the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[3][4] After her character was killed during the second season, she returned for two more episodes as a ghost. In the second season finale "Becoming, Part Two" she makes a brief appearance as a hypnosis induced suggestion by Drusilla to trick Rupert Giles into revealing the flaw in Angel's plan. Finally she returned during the third season episode "Amends" to play a false apparition of the dead Calendar, a guise assumed by the evil force known as "the First Evil".[5] However, LaMorte had become a born-again Christian after a highway encounter with a Christian biker gang while she was praying for a sign from God.[6] After having already accepted the guest appearance on her old show, she was upset to learn that she would be playing an equivalent of Satan.[7]

After her role ended on Buffy, LaMorte periodically accepted guest starring roles on various television shows, before retiring from acting to focus her efforts on Christian counseling, although she was occasionally seen in commercials and smaller roles. She also spends some of her time preaching Christianity and selling audio CDs on her website that give accounts of her religious conversion and beliefs. In an FAQ on that site, LaMorte writes that while she was once a proponent of New Age beliefs, she rejected them after her conversion to Christianity. She criticizes these beliefs as a form of "earth worship" and characterizes the practice of witchcraft a dangerous opening for demonic influence.[8] She later returned to acting, appearing in the film Unplanned.[9]

Personal life

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As of 2020, LaMorte is married under the last name Scott. She has one daughter. She is a committed Christian, and describes her conversion on her website.[10]

Filmography

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Film
Year Film Role Other notes
1988 Earth Girls Are Easy 'I'm a Blond' Dancer Uncredited role
1994 The Pros & Cons of Breathing Mona
1996 Fox Hunt Lisa Gilroy Live action video game[2]
1997 Spawn XXN Reporter
1998 Deidre's Party Robia
1999 Chicks, Man Kelly
12 Stops on the Road to Nowhere Jenny
2000 Looking for Lois Fran Short film
2002 Robot Bastard! Catherine
2005 Pomegranate Natalie
2019 Unplanned Cheryl Credited as Robia Scott
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Blood Ties Female Shrike FOX TV movie
1993 Beverly Hills, 90210 Jill Fleming Episode: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye
Episode: The Girl from New York City
1995, 1998 Silk Stalkings Denise
Veronique Collins 		Episode: Brother's Keeper
Episode: Do You Believe in Magic?
1997 Lawless Episode: Pilot
The Sentinel Erika Lazar Episode: The Inside Man
1997–1998 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Jenny Calendar/The First Evil 14 Episodes
1999 The Pretender Cindy Wells Episode: Countdown
Rescue 77 Megan Cates
Time of Your Life Angela Episode: The Time the Millennium Approached
2000 18 Wheels of Justice Maureen Cummings Episode: Con Truck
2001 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Joan Marks Episode: You've Got Male

References

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  1. ^ Swindoll, Jeff (2006) "DVD Review: Prince - Diamonds and Pearls", Monsters & Critics, October 20, 2006, retrieved July 12, 2011
  2. ^ a b "On the Trail of Foxhunt". GamePro. No. 87. IDG. December 1995. pp. 38–40.
  3. ^ Gilstrap, Andrew (2002) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", PopMatters, June 10, 2002, retrieved July 12, 2011
  4. ^ Fahy, Thomas (2010) The Philosophy of Horror, The University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 978-0-8131-2573-2, p. 91
  5. ^ Mestre, Robert (2008) The Big Book of Buffy Bites 2008: The Ultimate Resource for the Buffy Fanatic, Lulu.com, ISBN 978-1-4357-1081-8, p. 81
  6. ^ Renelle Richardson (November 7, 2008). "Robia LaMorte: When Excess Leaves You Empty". www.cbn.com. The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  7. ^ LaMorte: "Near the end of my run on Buffy, they asked me to come back for a Season Three episode called 'Amends,' and I didn't read a script because they didn't have one, and I agreed to do it. And I found out that I was basically playing... Satan. The character was called the First Evil, but it was essentially Satan. I wanted to get out of it, but there wasn't really an opportunity to. I don't know how I would handle it today; I would probably just decline and say, 'I'm sorry, I can't do it.' But you know, I was a new Christian, and I didn't know how to handle it." — quoted on two contemporary sites, from an interview c. 2004, the original-link for which is corrupt: https://www.reddit.com/r/buffy/comments/bxlo5r/do_you_think_they_should_have_somehow_resurrected/; and http://whedonesque.com/comments/4583
  8. ^ "Robia LaMorte". Robia LaMorte. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  9. ^ Released in 2019, [LaMorte-] Scott interview for it: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/business-podcasts/the-real-911-story-an-interview-with-unplanned-star-actress-robia-scott/
  10. ^ "About". Robia Scott.
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