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Born in Manhattan and raised in Los Angeles, Stephanie spent her childhood swimming, horseback riding, playing tennis, dancing, diving, clowning around, doing chores, and living the typical life of a tomboy in the vast San Fernando Valley. As a young amateur theatrical entrepreneur, she produced, wrote, and directed performances in her bedroom hallway, the stable, and on neighbors' fireplace hearths, earning her the nickname "the boss."
Stephanie's deep passion for theater was ignited at Brown Ledge Camp in Mallett's Bay, Vermont, where she acted, sang, and developed her theater skills over six summers. Many of the friends she made there remain close to her today.
Eager to pursue her dreams, she launched an independent project during her senior year at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia, then returned to Los Angeles to study acting, movement, voice, tap, and ballet. Graduating cum laude from high school, Stephanie opted for a professional drama school instead of university and faced a challenging period in New York to gain real-world experience.
Back in Los Angeles, she worked for her brother and sister-in-law's company, Correia Art Glass, while attending auditions. Eventually, she left glass packing behind to star in television movies such as the Emmy Award-winning The Gathering (1977), Centennial (1978), The Golden Moment: An Olympic Love Story (1980), and Tomorrow's Child (1982), along with various guest roles. After these projects and two feature films—The Magic of Lassie (1978) with James Stewart and The Awakening (1980) with Charlton Heston—Stephanie was cast as Laura Holt in the MTM series Remington Steele (1982), which she played for five years alongside Pierce Brosnan and Doris Roberts on NBC. She appeared in Caroline? (1990) for Hallmark on CBS, which won three Emmys and earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She also starred in The Story Lady (1991) with Jessica Tandy, Incident in a Small Town (1994) for CBS with Walter Matthau and Harry Morgan, and Stop the World, I Want to Get Off (1996), the musical on A&E, among more than thirty television movie appearances.
Stephanie starred in Lifetime Television's 50th movie, Prison of Secrets (1997), followed by an episode of Touched by an Angel (1994), their highest-rated show at the time. She enjoyed filming an independent movie with Dennis Hopper, The Prophet's Game (2000), in Ventura and Ojai. This was followed by Borderline Normal (2001) in Saskatchewan, Malpractice (2001) in New Orleans, and another Touched by an Angel episode. More recently, she guest-starred on Crossing Jordan (2001).
Striving for excellence has always been crucial to Stephanie, influenced by the high standards of her distinguished family. Her grandmother, Alma Gluck, was a renowned soprano; her grandfather, Efrem Zimbalist Sr., was a celebrated violinist, composer, and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Her aunt, Marcia Davenport, was an accomplished historical writer and novelist. Her father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., is an award-winning Broadway producer (notably Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul, The Medium, and The Telephone), gifted composer, and acclaimed actor known for 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The F.B.I. (1965), and numerous films. His Violin Sonata has been performed at several summer concert series. Her brother Efrem ("Skip") runs Active Interest Media, which publishes several magazines.
Stephanie made her stage debut in the musical Festival in 1979 at the Las Palmas Theater in Los Angeles, performing alongside Gregory Harrison and Brian Stokes Mitchell. She portrayed Miranda in The Tempest with Anthony Hopkins and Brent Carver at the Mark Taper Forum. Other theater credits include The Cherry Orchard at the Long Wharf Theater, Summer and Smoke and Barbarians at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the national tour of My One and Only with Tommy Tune. In 1989, she initiated a play specifically written for her and Linda Purl, directed by Jenny Sullivan: The Baby Dance by Jane Anderson. They produced and starred in it at the Pasadena Playhouse; the production later moved to Williamstown, Long Wharf, and enjoyed a critically acclaimed run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City. She played Polly Peacham in The Threepenny Opera with Betty Buckley at Williamstown and portrayed Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story at the Cleveland PlayHouse. In 1994, Stephanie took on dual roles—an Irish peasant and a New Bedford fisherman's wife—in the original production of The Crimson Thread in Connecticut, which she co-produced, and at the Pasadena Playhouse. She returned to the Los Angeles stage under Jenny Sullivan's direction in a comedic, powerful role as a sharp-tongued media personality in the West Coast premiere of AdWars, acting alongside the late David Dukes.
At L.A.’s Coronet Theater, Stephanie spent months playing the lovable dog in A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia. In 1998, she starred in the world premiere of Jane Martin’s Mr. Bundy at the Humana Festival of Actors Theatre in Louisville and enjoyed performing opposite Lucie Arnaz in Wonderful Town for the Reprise! series in L.A. She was delighted to reunite with John Bennett Perry and Jenny Sullivan for the Rubicon Theatre's award-winning production of The Rainmaker. A dream role came true when she portrayed Terry in Warren Leight’s Side Man at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, followed by a tour of Accomplice on the East Coast, after a month-long holiday in London, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Rostov (her grandfather Efrem Zimbalist Sr.’s birthplace), Istanbul, Athens, and sailing the Dodecanese. For several springs, Stephanie has opened the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival with a reading of one of his plays at their Gala event, sharing the stage with Alec Baldwin, Elizabeth Ashley, John Goodman, Patricia Neal, Linda Hart, and Rex Reed. Having worked in New Orleans on the festival and in Malpractice (2001), and having made friends there, the recent tragedies in the city have affected her deeply.
Another dream was fulfilled when she played Varya in The Cherry Orchard, with the added joy of acting opposite Alfred Molina, one of her heroes. Recently, she portrayed Ursula in Nicholas Wright’s Vincent in Brixton at the Pasadena Playhouse. At the Rubicon Theatre, she has appeared in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, Jane Anderson’s Defying Gravity, and shared the stage with her father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., for the first time in Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana.
