Diana Canova

Diana Canova, born Diane Canova Rivero on June 1, 1953, in West Palm Beach, Florida, is an American actress, director, and professor. The daughter of actress and singer Judy Canova and Cuban musician Filiberto Rivero, she grew up in the Greater Los Angeles Area and graduated from Hollywood High School before studying acting at Los Angeles City College.

Canova launched her television career with a 1974 guest appearance on Happy Days, followed by roles on Chico and the Man and Starsky and Hutch. In 1975, she appeared in the cult film The First Nudie Musical alongside Cindy Williams, and in 1976 she was a series regular on Dinah and Her New Best Friends, a CBS summer replacement for The Carol Burnett Show. Her most prominent early role came in 1977 when she was cast as Corinne Tate on the ABC comedy series Soap, opposite Katherine Helmond, remaining with the show through 1980. During that period she also appeared in Perry Como's 1978 television special "Early American Christmas," filmed in Williamsburg, Virginia, which featured John Wayne and incorporated musical numbers with storytelling. In 1979, she guest-starred on Barney Miller as nude dancer and graduate student Stephanie Wolf.

Following Soap, ABC cast Canova opposite Danny Thomas in I'm a Big Girl Now, which ran for one season beginning in 1980. She subsequently co-starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom Foot in the Door in 1983, then joined the cast of the syndicated sitcom Throb as Sandy Beatty, a role she held from 1986 to 1988. Between 1984 and 1996, Canova appeared in three episodes of Murder, She Wrote, including a featured role as Maggie McCauley in the 1990 episode "Murder: According to Maggie." In 1993, she co-starred in the ABC sitcom Home Free alongside Marian Mercer, who had previously appeared with her in Foot in the Door. Since the mid-1990s, Canova has worked primarily in voice roles for animated video shorts.

Her Broadway career spanned 1979 to 1995. She starred in Company and also appeared in They're Playing Our Song. In 1995, she played Jenny in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company.

From 2015 to 2023, Canova served as an adjunct professor of voice at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, while also teaching private lessons. She has directed musicals, short plays, and a high school improv troupe for the school systems of Easton and Redding, Connecticut. Under her direction, Joel Barlow High School's theater program received multiple awards from the Connecticut Drama Association, including first-place finishes in multiple categories in two consecutive years.

In her personal life, Canova was married to Geoff Levin from 1976 until 1979. She later married record producer Elliot Scheiner, with whom she has two children. Canova is a former member of the Church of Scientology, which she has publicly criticized, including in a 1993 Premiere magazine interview in which she commented on the organization's financial practices and its counseling method known as auditing.