Diora Baird

Diora Lynn Baird (born April 6, 1983)^[1] is an American actress and former model for clothing brand Guess?.

Diora Baird
Diora Baird in 2003
Born	(1983-04-06) April 6, 1983 (age 41) Miami, Florida, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Actress, model
Years active	2004–present
Spouse	Jonathan Togo ​ ​ (m. 2013; div. 2016)​
Children	1

Early life

Baird was born in Miami, Florida on April 6, 1983. She got into acting when her mother, who was also a model, enrolled her in an acting class to help her overcome introversion. Later, she became vice president of her school's Thespian Society.^[1]

At 17, she moved to Los Angeles with the hope of pursuing an acting career. To earn money while auditioning, she worked as a salesperson at The Gap, a caterer, a waitress, a pre-school teacher and a clown at children's parties, until breaking into the modeling industry - most notably with Guess?.^[1] Her exposure increased considerably with an appearance on the cover of the August 2005 issue of Playboy magazine.^[2][3] She was signed to Elite Model Management in Miami.^[4]

Career

In 2004, Baird also started earning acting roles, such as an appearance on the Drew Carey Show and in the low budget film Brain Blockers. Her breakthrough appearance in a major film was in Wedding Crashers in 2005, which she followed up with roles in Accepted and Hot Tamale. In 2006, she appeared in four films, most notably a major role in the horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Baird had featured photo spreads in several magazines including Playboy, FHM, Stuff, Maxim (in which she was ranked #76 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list,^[5] #64 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list,^[6] #76 on the Maxim Magazine Hot 100 of 2011 list,^[7] the #17 spot on FHM's top 100 2010, and the #40 spot in 2011),^[8] Toro and Esquire (UK).^[9] She lent her voice to the Scarface video game as one of Tony Montana's possible girlfriends.^[10]

Baird has also guest starred in episodes of Big Day, Shark, The Loop, and Two and a Half Men (the 2009 episode "She'll Still Be Dead at Halftime"). She starred in the movie 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, directed by Ben Ketai,^[11] which is produced by Columbia Pictures and Ghost House Pictures.^[12] Baird stars in the FEARnet webseries Tea Party Macabre, which is part of the series "Women in Horror Month".^[13] She also starred in the 2009 comedy Stan Helsing.^[14]

She starred in several videos for the Funny or Die website, including one with Garfunkel and Oates called "Go Running with Chicken" and "Sexy Dark Ages" with Robert Englund.^[15] She starred in another web video with the comedic duo called "This Party Took a Turn for the Douche". In 2010, she appeared in Night of the Demons. In February 2011, she starred in a short musical film called "Howlin' for You" for the band The Black Keys.^[16]

She plays a porn star in her 2014 film Beautiful Girl. Baird was cast in a recurring role in the Amazon Studios pilot Cocked along with costars Brian Dennehy, Jason Lee, Dreama Walker, and Sam Trammell. The show was not picked up for series.^[17] Baird guest starred in an episode of the Hulu series Casual.^[18]

Personal life

Baird was married to actor Jonathan Togo from 2013 to 2016; they have one child.^[19][20] In 2017, Baird revealed that she was dating comedian Mav Viola.^[21] Baird told The Advocate magazine that after years of assuming herself to be asexual, she identifies as lesbian.^[22] On December 29, 2017, Baird announced that she and Viola were engaged.^[23]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Wedding Crashers	Vivian
2006	Hot Tamale	Tuesday Blackwell
2006	Bachelor Party Vegas	Penelope	Direct-to-video film
2006	Fifty Pills	Tiffany
2006	Accepted	Kiki
2006	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning	Bailey
2007	Brain Blockers	Suzi Klein	Direct-to-video film
2007	Young People Fucking	Jamie
2008	South of Heaven	Lily
2008	My Best Friend's Girl	Rachel
2009	Stan Helsing	Nadine
2009	Night of the Demons	Lily Thompson
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Mrs. Steelman
2010	Let the Game Begin	Kate
2010	Quit	Danielle
2010	30 Days of Night: Dark Days	Amber	Direct-to-video film
2010	Love Shack	LaCienga Torrez
2010	Dry Run	Laurie
2012	Transit	Arielle
2012	Last Call	Janine
2013	Riddle	Amber Richards
2013	Concrete Blondes	Sammi Lovett
2014	Beautiful Girl	Odessa
2021	The Virtuoso	Johnnie's Girl
2023	Night Train	Jaylynne Jackson
2024	Spread	Xtasy
2024	Witchy Ways	Eve	post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	The Drew Carey Show	Valerie	Episode: "Drew Thinks Inside the Box"
2006	South Beach	Brianna	Unaired TV pilot
2006–2007	Big Day	Kristin	3 episodes
2007	Shark	Nina Lange	Episode: "Fall from Grace"
2007	The Loop	Cara	Guest role; 2 episodes
2009	Two and a Half Men	Wanda	Episode: "She'll Still Be Dead at Halftime"
2009	Robot Chicken	Fantasia / Spanish Woman / Woman / Lady / Girl	Voice role; 2 episodes
2009	Gary Unmarried	Redhead	Episode: "Gary Shoots Fish in a Barrel"
2009	Accidentally on Purpose	Andrea	Episode: "The Love Guru"
2010	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Lainie McCallum	Episode: "Witness"
2011	Psych	Nicole	Episode: "The Tao of Gus"
2012	Bent	Natalie	Episode: "Smitten"
2012–2013	Shameless	Meg	4 episodes
2014	Franklin & Bash	Cindy Maloney	Episode: "Dance the Night Away"
2014	Newsreaders	Ashley / Jennifer	Episode: "Strip Club Expose; Long Lost Twins"
2015	Cocked	Aubrey	Television film
2015	Casual	April	Episode: "Animals"
2016	Telenovela	Maria Wilson	Episode: "Caught in the Act"
2016	Angel from Hell	Brandi	3 episodes
2018–2022	Cobra Kai	Shannon Keene	Recurring role, 7 episodes
2018	My Daughter Vanished	Melanie	Television film; also known as Hidden Family Secrets
2019	The Missing Sister	Collette	Television film; also known as My Sister's Deadly Secret
2020	Her Secret Family Killer	April	Television film
2020	Psycho Sister-In-Law	Callie Hayes	Television film
2022	Bound by Blackmail	Diana	Television film
2023	You're Not Supposed to Be Here	Kennedy	Television film

Web

• Tea Party Macabre (2010), as herself; 5 episodes

Music videos

• "Howlin' for You" (2011), by The Black Keys^{[24][better source needed]}
• "This Party Took a Turn for the Douche" (2011), by Garfunkel and Oates^{[25][better source needed]}
• "Out of Goodbyes" (2011), by Maroon 5 featuring Lady Antebellum^{[26][better source needed]}

Video game

• Scarface: The World is Yours (2006), as Femme Fatale (voice role)

References

1. Baird at Maxim.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-26. Archived August 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
2. "Model of the Week". Askmen.com. April 2007. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2006.
3. Miska, Brad (October 2005). "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Prequel: Star Diora Baird". Defamer.com.
4. "Diora Baird". Fashion Model Directory. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
5. Maxim Hot 100 2007 Archived July 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Maxim.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-26.
6. Maxim Hot 100 2008 Archived July 16, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Maxim.com (2007-09-24). Retrieved on 2011-07-26.
7. Maxim. "2011 Hot 100". Archived from the original on May 5, 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
8. AdTech Ad FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2010 Archived July 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Fhm.com; retrieved 2011-07-26.
9. FHM. "FHM's 100 Sexiest Women of 2011". Archived from the original on August 8, 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
10. Stahie, Silviu (May 2006). "'Scarface: The World Is Yours' Signs Five Hollywood Beauties". Softpedia. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
11. "'30 Days of Night Dark Days' Officially Announced", October 22, 2009 Bloody-discusting.com. Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved on 2011-07-26.
12. BD's Got Your '30 Days of Night: Dark Days' Casting!. Bloody-disgusting.com; retrieved 2011-07-26.
13. Creepy, Uncle. (2010-01-28) You're Invited to a Tea Party Macabre. Dreadcentral.com; retrieved 2011-07-26.
14. "Watch Stan Helsing-Amazon Prime". Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
15. Diora Baird profile Archived June 24, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Funnyordie.com; retrieved 2011-07-26.
16. "Video-The Black Keys "Howlin' For You"". Kroq.radio.com. February 11, 2011. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
17. "New Amazon Shows: What We're Expecting From Its First 2015 Pilots". Indiewire. January 13, 2015.
18. "Casual (TV Series 2015-2018)". IMDB.com. Retrieved September 8, 2020.
19. "New work of the beautiful (and expecting!) Diora Baird". stephanie vovas blog. December 3, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
20. "Someone FINALLY decided to make his grand entrance into the world..." Diora Baird official Twitter. December 12, 2012.
21. "'Shameless' actor Diora Baird comes out". May 29, 2017.
22. "Actress Diora Baird Is Lucky in Love". September 8, 2017.
23. Thompson, Avery (December 29, 2017). "'Cobra Kai' Star Diora Baird Engaged To Partner Mav Viola — See Her Gorgeous Ring". Hollywood Life. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
24. "The Black Keys – Howlin' for You". Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2018 – via YouTube.
25. "Garfunkel and Oates – This Party Took a Turn for the Douche". Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2018 – via YouTube.
26. "Maroon 5 – Out of Goodbyes featuring Lady Antebellum". Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2018 – via YouTube.

External links

• Diora Baird at IMDb