American actress Barbara Alyn Woods first established herself as an actress with periodic guest-starring roles on sitcoms and prime-time dramatic series, beginning in the late '80s. No stranger to eclecticism or flexibility, Woods graced the cast of everything from Married...With Children to Seinfeld (as one of Jerry's endless string of dates) to Star Trek: The Next Generation. When Woods ventured into film roles not long after, the quality of the projects varied substantially, from finely crafted (1991's The Waterdance) to downright abysmal (the 1990 spoof Repossessed), but she remained prolific throughout.
Woods began dipping into erotically charged material with the omnibus feature Playboy: Inside Out (1992) and the Andrew Bergman/Demi Moore comedy Striptease (as Lorelei). The series Eden (1993) covered similar thematic ground and marked one of Woods' first lead roles; she played Eve, the proprietor of a resort on the Mexican Riviera; unfortunately, that series lasted only a short time and received terrible reviews. From 1997-2000, the actress played the mom, Diane Szalinski, on the film-to-TV adaptation Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show. During the early 2000s, Woods received favorable notices for her portrayal of Deb Lee/Scott, the estranged wife of Dan (Paul Johansson), on the popular prime-time drama One Tree Hill. She started out in a recurring capacity during the first season, but became a regular cast member starting with season two of that series.