A petite, stage-trained blonde adept at portraying naive or off-center characters, Dina Spybey Waters first came to prominence in and won a Daytime Emmy Award for the leading role of an underage teenager in the fact-based HBO special, Lifestories: Families in Crisis: Public Law 106: The Becky Bell Story (1992).
In 2000, she married director Mark Waters and eventually changed her professional name to reflect their union. The two collaborated on several projects, including Freaky Friday (2003) and HBO First Look: Just Like Heaven (2005). In the latter film, she delivered one of her best performances as Reese Witherspoon’s protective, married-with-kids sister, veering adroitly between her trademark high-pitched comedic energy and convincing emotional moments.
Waters earned a B.F.A. in Acting from Ohio State University and an M.F.A. from Rutgers University, before beginning her career on stage. She had appeared in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including Alan Ball’s “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress”, for which she earned a Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent, “Blue Light” and “The Shawl”, both directed by Sidney Lumet, and “The Iceman Cometh”, opposite Kevin Spacey.
