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Robia Brett LaMorte (b. July 7 1970) is an American actor and former dancer. She is best known as a dancer for the singer Prince, and for her role as Jenny Calendar in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

LaMorte was born in the New York City borough of Queens and grew up in several locations including the Florida Keys and Ocean City, Maryland. After being inspired by the 1983 movie Flashdance, she began dancing and taking after-school lessons in jazz, 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 16, she began working as a backup dancer in music videos, first appearing in Debbie Gibson's "Shake Your Love."

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 the musician Prince to be one of two lead dancers for the music video for "Cream," a single from his 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls. Prince had originally sought identical twins, but chose LaMorte along with another dancer, Lori Werner, because of their similar appearance and the dance chemistry they had with Prince. Werner 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 then toured Europe with Prince, and when he temporarily refused to do any public speaking, she and Elle served as his spokespersons and conducted the main promotional efforts for Diamonds and Pearls.

At the age of 22, LaMorte retired from dance and turned to acting. After doing numerous television commercials, she landed the role of Jason Priestly's girlfriend Jill Fleming on Beverly Hills 90210 in two episodes. Her first regular role was as high school teacher and technopagan Jenny Calendar on the first two seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After her character was killed during the second season, she returned for one episode in the third to play a false apparition of the dead Calendar, a guise assumed by the evil force known as "the First Evil." 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. After having already accepted the guest appearance on her old show, she was upset to learn that she would be playing the equivalent of Satan.

Since her role ended on Buffy, LaMorte has periodically accepted guest starring roles on various television shows. More recently she has retired from acting, focusing her efforts on other priorities such as Christian counseling, although she occasionally can be seen in commercials and smaller roles. She also spends some of her time attending fan conventions and preaching Christianity, and sells audio CDs on her website that give accounts of her religious conversion and beliefs. Though a former adherent of many New Age ideas, LaMorte is now critical of "earth worship," and also views practicing witchcraft as a dangerous opening for demonic influence.

Her last name is sometimes spelled "La Morte" in credits.

External links

• Robia LaMorte official site

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