Stacey Dash

Stacey Dash has two children: a son, Austin, with singer Christopher Williams, and a daughter, Lola. Accounts differ on whether Lola's father is Brian Lovell or James Maby. Dash was married to producer Brian Lovell from 1999 to 2005, James Maby from 2005 to 2006, actor Emmanuel Xuereb from 2007 to 2011, and lawyer Jeffrey Marty from 2018 to 2020. She met Marty ten days before their wedding and became stepmother to his three children.

Dash has spoken about childhood molestation, cocaine addiction during her teens and 20s, and abusive relationships. She discussed a past Vicodin addiction on The Dr. Oz Show in 2021 and said she had been sober for five years. In 2019, she was arrested in Florida on a domestic battery charge after an argument with Marty. She pleaded not guilty, and the case was dropped at Marty's request.

Dash began acting professionally at an early age. Her first television appearance was in the 1982 NBC crime-drama pilot Farrell: For the People, followed by a notable appearance as Michelle in a 1985 episode of The Cosby Show. Her first major film role was in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving, in which she played Pryor's teenage daughter. She later appeared in Mo' Money with Damon Wayans and Renaissance Man with Mark Wahlberg.

Her breakthrough came with the 1995 teen comedy Clueless, in which she played Dionne Davenport, Cher's high school best friend. Dash was 28 when she played the teenage character. She reprised the role in the television spin-off, which ran from 1996 to 1999 and included Donald Faison as Dionne's boyfriend.

After Clueless, Dash appeared in films including Oliver Stone's Cold Around the Heart, Personals, View from the Top, Gang of Roses, Getting Played, I Could Never Be Your Woman, Dysfunctional Friends, The Thinning, Honor Up, Roe v. Wade, The Dawn, Carolina's Calling, 7th Secret, Corsicana, and Four. She was also an associate producer on Dysfunctional Friends.

Her television credits include St. Elsewhere, TV 101, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Game, and Single Ladies. She played Valerie “Val” Stokes in the first season of Single Ladies and left the series to focus on her family. In 2008, she competed on Celebrity Circus despite suffering a broken rib during training, finishing second behind Antonio Sabàto Jr. Dash also appeared in music videos by Christopher Williams, Carl Thomas, Kanye West, Marques Houston, and others.

Dash joined Fox News in 2014 as a contributor for cultural analysis and commentary. The network suspended her without pay for two weeks after a 2015 remark about President Barack Obama's address on Islamic terrorism. She drew further criticism in 2016 for comments about BET, Black History Month, transgender rights, and Jesse Williams's BET Awards speech. Fox News did not renew her contract in 2017.

Dash voted for Barack Obama in 2008, changed her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican in 2012, and endorsed Mitt Romney that year. She supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and entered the 2018 Republican primary for California's 44th congressional district. She withdrew from the race before the primary, but her name remained on the ballot, where she finished last with 4,361 votes, or 7.2 percent of the vote. In 2021, Dash said that supporting Trump had put her “in some kind of box” and that she would give President Joe Biden a chance.

Dash published the memoir There Goes My Social Life: From Clueless to Conservative in 2016.