Last Updated on March 2, 2023

Vanessa Marcil Biography

Vanessa Marcil born Sally Vanessa Ortiz is an American actress well known for her television roles as Brenda Barrett on General Hospital, Gina Kincaid on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sam Marquez on Las Vegas.

Vanessa Marcil Age | How Old is Vanessa Marcil

Vanessa Marcil Parents, Education

Born in Indio, California, Marcil is the youngest of four children to Patricia Marcil, an herbalist and Peter Ortiz, a contractor and self-made millionaire. Her father is Mexican and her mother is an American of French and Italian ancestry. She went to Indio High School, located in Indio, California. Shortly after high school Marcil attended a junior college; College of the Desert. This college is located in Palm Desert, California.

Vanessa Marcil Career

Marcil acted in a number of theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the soap opera General Hospital, in 1992. Marcil garnered three Daytime Emmy Award nominations (in 1997, 1998 and 2003) for her portrayal and won in 2003 as Outstanding Supporting Actress. She was named Outstanding Lead Actress in February 1998 at the Soap Opera Digest Awards.

She appeared in the Prince music video “Poorgoo” on June 14, 1993, which was released officially in very limited numbers. Marcil was cast in the 1994 Prince music video, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and made People’s 50 Most Beautiful list the next year. She made her feature-film debut in the film The Rock in 1996, in which she appeared opposite Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris.

After six years on General Hospital, she left the show in 1998, to star in the made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive and had a recurring guest role on the police drama High Incident, produced by Steven Spielberg.  Marcil joined the Beverly Hills, 90210 cast in November 1998 as Gina Kincaid and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons. She starred in two independent films: Nice Guys Sleep Alone, with Sean O’Bryan and This Space Between Us, with Jeremy Sisto in 1999.

She was initially cast in 2001 to join NYPD Blue’s ninth season as a new series regular, Det. Carmen Olivera. However, after her first appearance in “Johnny Got His Gold”, the show decided to redo the role and replaced Marcil with Jacqueline Obradors, as Det. Rita Ortiz. Marcil made one more cameo appearance, as Det. Olivera, in the 11th-season episode “Shear Stupidity”.

Marcil returned to General Hospital from 2002 to 2003, as Brenda Barrett, garnering her a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2003. Vanessa later joined the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas as Sam Marquez, a casino host, where she remained on the show for five seasons until 2008. She became the host of Lifetime’s reality show Blush that same year: The Search for America’s Greatest Makeup Artist, as well as making a three-episode guest appearance on the NBC show Lipstick Jungle.

Marcil starred in the 2009 Hallmark channel movie The Nanny Express and in the Lifetime movie One Hot Summer. She was in the web series The Bannen Way in 2010 and in August 2010 after a seven-year absence, she made her return to General Hospital remaining on the show for a year before her departure from the show in July 2011. Marcil did make a guest appearance in April 2013 to commemorate the show’s 50th anniversary.

She starred in the 2014 Hallmark channel movie Stranded in Paradise and in 2015, she joined the cast of the Pop reality series Queens of Drama, about the lives of former soap-opera actresses attempting to pitch a pilot for a television network. She starred in her latest Hallmark channel movie, The Convenient Groom in 2016.

Vanessa Marcil 90210

Marcil joined the Beverly Hills, 90210 cast in November 1998 as Gina Kincaid and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons. 90210 is an American teen drama television series, developed by Rob Thomas, Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, that aired from September 2, 2008, to May 13, 2013. It is the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. The series was produced by CBS Television Studios.

Vanessa Marcil Movies

• 1996 The Rock Carla Pestalozzi
• 1997 976-WISH Danielle
• 1999 Nice Guys Sleep Alone Erin
• 2000 This Space Between Us Maggie Harty
• 2002 Storm Watch Tess Woodward

Vanessa Marcil TV Shows