Diane Mizota. Courtesy of DianeMizota.com

A Little Ditty 'bout a Girl Named Diane

By Karen K. Sakai

The Lovely and Talented Diane Mizota. Courtesy of DianeMizota.com

As a college student, at the University of California, Los Angeles, Diane Mizota interned for the offices of Bette Midler and also worked on the set of Margaret Cho's sitcom, "All-American Girl." Besides getting an invaluable academic education, with the aid of scholarships, Mizota also continued with her passion of jazz dancing. "When I came to UCLA, I really wanted to dance on campus because it's the closest thing to professional dance studios that you get." That also meant that you got free dance classes in exchange for cleaning the toilets and working the desk," says Mizota.

From there, she started dancing on commercials for stores like "The Gap," and for television shows like "Ally McBeal" and "Friends." With an impressive resume filled with films like "That Thing You Do" and "Boogie Nights," the 68th and 69th Academy Awards were also among the list of stages she graced. However, Diane Mizota was still hesitant of "making it" in Hollywood.

"When I chose to be a dancer, I expected to live in a one bedroom apartment for the rest of my life. I never expected to make a career out of it. I thought that I would do this, and then I'll become a secretary or something," Mizota explained.

Can you tell who is who? Fook Mi and Fook Yu with Austin Powers. Courtesy of kensforce.com

But dancing in such high profile shows naturally segued In to an acting career, where Mizota played various roles ranging anywhere from showgirl to forensics expert on shows like "CSI: Miami," "7th Heaven," "MTV's Undressed," and films like "You'll Never Wieze in This Town Again," and in both "Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me," and "Austin Powers 3: Goldmember," playing Fook Mi, one of the Asian twins that ogled over Austin Powers, making sexually solicitations in short, provocative clothing.

Besides dancing and acting, Mizota is also writing, producing and starring in her own sitcom, "Bitter Party of Four," in which she tells her own story as a dancer and through which she will create more roles for Asian Americans in the entertainment industry.

In 2003, she became the host for the children's version of the popular home decorating show, "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls." While the show is about a boy and a girl trading rooms and redecorating them, Mizota sometimes steal the scenes with her improvised humor and high-spirited energy that shows she truly enjoys what she's doing.

Trading Spaces host, Diane Mizota, lays down the rules of game. Courtesy of kids.discovery.com

"For once, it's nice for me not be a character like a Chinese prostitute, or any of the other crazy roles that are out there. I get to be myself, and I can say all of the 13 yr-old boy jokes and everybody laughs!"

She is also hosting the video-game show "Filter" on the G4 Network that counts down the top ten video games out on the market. Her popularity has also led to a few marriage proposals from 8 yr-old and 13 yr-old fans of the G4 Network. Recently, she was awarded with Multichannel News' "Wonder Women of the Year Award," recognizing her talent as a host.

The acclaimed essence of Mizota's charm on screen was explained by one of her young fans on the G4 Network Forums, "There are plenty of fish, frogs, and funny looking jet skis in the sea, but there's only one Diane Mizota!"

For more information on Diane Mizota visit dianemizota.com.

For more information on the show "Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls" visit kids.discovery.com.

For more information on the G4 Network show, "Filter" visit g4tv.com.