Moon Zappa

Moon Unit Zappa (born September 28, 1967) is an American actress and author.

Personal life

Moon Zappa was born in New York City, the eldest child of Gail (née Sloatman) and musician Frank Zappa. She has three younger siblings, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Muffin. Zappa's father was of Sicilian, Greek-Arab, and French ancestry, and her mother is of French, Irish, and mostly Danish ancestry. Zappa attended Oakwood School in North Hollywood, California. She married Paul Doucette, former drummer and current rhythm guitarist for American pop group Matchbox Twenty, in June 2002. They have one child, Mathilda Plum Doucette, born December 21, 2004. Zappa filed for divorce in January 2012. The divorce was finalized in early 2014. Zappa briefly dated comedian and podcast host Marc Maron.

Career

Apart from the novelty of her and her siblings' names, she first came to public attention in 1982, at the age of 14, as a vocalist on her father's Top 40 hit single, "Valley Girl". The song featured Moon Zappa delivering a monologue in "valleyspeak", a collection of slang terms popular with teenage girls in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. In the mid-1980s, Moon and her brother Dweezil were frequent guest VJs on MTV. "Valley Girl" was Frank Zappa's biggest hit in the United States, and popularized phrases from the lyric such as "grody to the max" and "gag me with a spoon". The song appeared on her father's 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. She later made another recording titled "My Mother Is a Space Cadet", with guitar accompaniment by her brother Dweezil.