Biography

Marialejandra Delfino was born in Caracas, Venezuela on February 20, 1981 and was the second daughter for Enrique and Mary Delfino. Her older sister Marieh was born on September 24, 1978. It was little Marieh´s inability to pronounce her sister’s name and she began calling her Majandra.

At the age of three her family moved to the United States and settled in Miami where she began her interest in the performing arts and by age five she was playing piano. As her interest in the performing arts continued as she grew older, she applied and was accepted to the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida.

It was while in Miami that she danced with the Miami Ballet in “The Nutcracker” three years in a row. In a recent post where she answered fans questions, Majandra had this to say about the experience:

Dance wasn’t Majandra’s only interest in the arts, she also had a love for singing and songwriting. At age eleven she and her best friend Samantha Gibb; daughter of the late Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees’ fame, joined the singing quartet called China Doll along with Alana and Nicolle Chirino. The group specialized in soul-styled pop and had the opportunity to open for the Bee Gees at a benefit concert at Miami Beach. Majandra recently commented on the benefit concert while answering fans questions.

After some time Majandra and Samantha left the group and Majandra decided to pursue her love of acting. A sixteen-year-old Majandra convinced her parents to allow her to move to LA and give acting six months.

Within a month Majandra landed an agent and her first role playing Kathleen Quinlan’s daughter in the film “Zeus and Roxanne” for Disney. She also landed her first television series a few months later when Majandra was cast as Tina DiMeo on “The Tony Danza Show” playing Tony Danza’s daughter in 1997. A role that she was nominated for the first of three Alma Award nominations in Outstanding Individual Performance in a Television Series in a Crossover Role (the only female nominated in that category).

After “The Tony Danza Show” was cancelled, Majandra wasted no time and landed the lead roles in two films. The independent dramedy “The Secret Life of Girls” co-starring Linda Hamilton and Eugene Levy (Majandra also recorded a cover version of the song Superstar that was used in the film), and the comedy “Shriek if You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th” where she co-starred with fellow future Roswell alumni Julie Benz.

Following up work in these two films, Majandra landed not one but two roles in 1999 series’ for The WB network. The first was a comedy series starring Park Overall called “Katie Joplin” and reunited Majandra with her Shriek co-star Simon Rex as her love interest.

The second series of course was a little show called “Roswell” for which Majandra was nominated for her second Alma Award in 2000 for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series as being nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Drama Series – Leading Young Actress.

While working on Roswell, Majandra found time to co-star in three feature films. She landed a role in the multi-Award winning film “Traffic” playing the friend to the daughter of Michael Douglas’s character. A role that Majandra was nominated (and proving that third time’s a charm) for her third Alma Award along with the rest of the Latino cast members and won the 2001 Outstanding Latino Cast in a Feature Film Award.

In 2001, she did a short film called “Dirty Laundry” with her “Roswell” co-star Nick Wechsler.

Her next role was in the independent film “R.S.V.P.” which was a film festival and critics darling where it won several awards including Audience Choice Award at the Slamdunk Film Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Feature at the Malibu International Film Festival where Majandra’s former co-star Tony Danza presented the award at the festival award ceremony. The film also enjoyed success at Cannes in May 2002 where it played two nights to capacity crowds that lined up outside the state-of-the-art theater Rivera 8 in the heart of the Cannes to see the film.

She also took time out to co-star in the film “The Learning Curve” where she got to play a singer who is ‘discovered’ by a pair of con artists. Majandra not only got the chance to sing in the film but she wrote one of the songs she sings in the film.

In 2001, Majandra released her self-produced debut CD called “The Sicks” and showed her fans another side of herself, not only through her music but through her paintings that were used as the artwork for the booklet of the CD.

As “Roswell” came to an end in 2002 after its three year run, Majandra went to work on the independent feature “Reeseville” and embarked on promoting her CD with concerts in New York, LA and Paris.

In 2003, Majandra co-wrote and sang her first duet with French singer RoBERT called “Le Prince Bleu” as well as working on two films. The first is a drama called “State’s Evidence” that co-stars Alexa Vega of The Spy Kids Trilogy and the second was the ABC Family film “Celeste in the City” with Nicholas Brendon of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” which debuted in March 2004.

In 2004, Majandra recorded a commentary on the season one Roswell DVD box set and guest starred on her former boss’ Jason Katims show “Boston Public”. She also returned to Paris and played two shows with RoBERT where she debuted two of her new songs “I’m MAD” and “Still Not Over This” as well as announcing that she was completing the finishing touches on her upcoming second CD. 2004 also saw the re-launch of Majandra’s website in which she shares with her fans personal pictures and journal entries letting her fans know what she is up to.

In 2005, Majandra got to fulfill a long time wish and got to act alongside her sister Marieh in the critically acclaimed film “Don’t Come Knocking” written by actor/playwright Sam Shepard and directed by the legendary award winning German film maker Wim Wenders. The cast included Oscar winning actors Jessica Lange, Eva Marie Saint and George Kennedy.

In 2006, Majandra was busy filming two pilots. The first was the original pilot for ABC Family’s “Three Moons Over Milford” along with Sherilyn Fenn. The pilot was re-shot later that year but unfortunately Majandra dropped out of the project.

She also landed the role of Suzette in the pilot for CBS’s “Ultra” based on the hip graphic novel by The Luna Brothers. The show was created by Emmy winning writer and producer Barbara Hall. Even though fans fought hard to see the show picked up by CBS it was not included in the 2006 line up.

Majandra also guest starred twice on the Ted Danson’s series “Help Me, Help You” playing Lucy.

2007 was a very busy year for Majandra in both her professional and personal life. In April of 2007 Majandra launched her own record label called “Red Velvet Cake Records” and released her anxiously awaited sophomore album “Tarte”. The release of “Tarte” coincided with a revamping of Majandra’s official site as well as her official MySpace page.

On October 6, 2007, Majandra married longtime boyfriend Devon Gummersall. Majandra posted on her official message board announcing the wedding and also confirming that she was going to guest star on the hit online series “Quarterlife” by Emmy winning producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick.

“Quarterlife” was actually a family affair for Majandra since her husband Devon was a writer for the show, her brother-in-law Joshua was a producer and her father-in-law C. Gregory Gummersall’s artwork was displayed on the show. Fans were also pleasantly surprised to see Majandra’s sister Marieh playing Ariel on the show.

In November 2007, NBC announced that they had picked up the “Quarterlife” and would begin airing it in February 2008.

Sometime in 2008, Majandra and Devon got divorced.

In 2008, Majandra reuinted with director Holly Goldberg Sloan, with whom she worked together on “The Secret Life Of Girls” for “Heidi 4 Paws”. She lend her voice to ‘evil’ Miss Rottenmeier in Holly’s dog-version of Johanna Spyri famous novel “Heidi”. The film aired around Christmas.

In 2009, Majandra made a pilot with Lindsay Sloane called “Pulling” based on the BBC show from 2006. The show was not included in ABC fall line up. She also starred in a short film called “Bent” together with her sister Marieh and her future husband David Walton.

In Summer 2009, she did an independent film called “Web Of Lies” which was shot in Canada.

In October 2009, she joined her former “Roswell” co-star Katherine Heigl and “Transformers” star Josh Duhamel in their romantic comedy “Life As We Know It” which was released in December 2010.

In March 2011, Majandra married her boyfriend of 3 years David Walton. They met on the set of “Quarterlife” where they also played a couple. The ceremony took place at Trinity Cathedral, the oldest church in Miami, and the reception was held at The Surf Club ballroom, one of Miami’s oldest private beach clubs – and one with a special meaning for Majandra. She had her debutant ball there at 19. Majandra’s former Roswell co-star Katherine Heigl served as a bridesmaid.

She had a guest appearance on “Men Of A Certain Age” as Scott Bakula’s girlfriend.

In Summer 2011, her show “State Of Georgia” aired on ABC Family. She played Raven-Symoné’s BFF Jo Pye. The project was very dear to Majandra and she loved working with Raven. Unfortunately, the show got canceled after only one season.

In 2012, Majandra filmed two pilots. Unfortunately, neither show got a pick-up. One was a comedy with Majandra’s old friend Mandy Moore called “Family Trap”. The other was the spin-off to “The Office” called “The Farm”. Even though the show didn’t get a pick-up, we got to see the pilot as an episode of the final season of “The Office”.

Majandra also had another ‘big project’ in 2012. She gave birth to her first child, a daughter Cecilia Delphine Walton, on June 14, 2012.

In 2013, Majandra was cast as a supporting character in a pilot called “Keep Calm And Karey On” but soon dropped out only to be cast in another pilot for CBS “Friends With Better Lives”. Lucky for her since the latter got a pick-up.

While filming “Friends With Better Lives” Majandra got pregnant again which was written into the show. Sadly, the show didn’t get picked up for a second season.

Majandra gave birth to her second child, a son Louis Augustus Walton, on November 10, 2013.

In 2015, Majandra was cast in the pilot “Nerd Herd” with James Roday and Melanie Griffith. Unfortunately, the pilot was not picked up.

In June 2016, Majandra revealed that her and Brendan were working on a project together called “Baron + Toluca”. A project written by Majandra herself. Majandra and Brendan are still working on this and very determined to make it available for fans.

In 2017, Majandra had a small role in Zoe Lister-Jones directorial debut “Band Aid”.

In September 2019, Majandra and her husband David Walton filmed the comedy “Later Days” where they played a married couple. The film was released on March 20, 2021 at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.