Tori Spelling Biography

Tori Spelling’s fame came first from her family name, then from her acting in various roles, and finally as a reality star of the B-minus-to-C-plus variety.

Her father, Aaron Spelling, was the producer behind TV superhits of the 1970s and 1980s like The Love Boat and Dynasty. He added Tori to the cast of his 1990s teen hit Beverly Hills 90210, where she played the shy-but-blossoming Donna Martin from 1990-2000. She went on to become a tabloid favorite due to a heady combination of cosmetic surgeries, relationship troubles, fan attacks on her acting skills, and (after her father’s 2006 death) squabbles with her mother, Candy.

Spelling’s films include The House of Yes (1997, with Parker Posey), Scream 2 (1997) and Kiss the Bride (2007). She married Dean McDermott in 2006. From 2007-2012 they co-starred in the cable TV “reality” series Tori and Dean: Inn Love (later Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood). The show’s original premise was that the pair would open a bed and breakfast, and they briefly ran such an inn, named Chateau La Rue, in Fallbrook, California. They closed the inn in 2008 and their show morphed into a life-in-Hollywood family story instead. A second short-lived series, Tori and Dean: Cabin Fever, aired in 2014.