Zola Frank Zappa is the daughter of Dweezil Zappa and Lauren Knudsen, born in 2006. At the age of 15, she has already embarked on a career as a professional model, signed with IMG Models, and has modeled for Gucci to Givenchy. Despite her parents’ divorce in 2012, Zola has managed to remain close to both her mother and father. She is politically aware and vocal about her beliefs, often appearing on her mother’s Instagram page.
Her Father, Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa was born on September 5, 1969 in Los Angeles, California to Frank Zappa and Gail Zappa. His registered birth name was Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa, but he was nicknamed “Dweezil” as a baby due to an oddly curled pinky toe of Gail’s. When he got older, he insisted on having his nickname become his legal name and Gail and Frank hired an attorney to make it official. He is the second of four siblings – Moon, Diva, Ahmet – and the cousin of actress Lala Sloatman. Dweezil’s parents have Sicilian, Greek, Arab, French, German and Portuguese ancestry.
In the late 1980s, Dweezil Zappa made a name for himself as an MTV VJ and session musician, playing lead guitar on the Fat Boys’ “Wipe Out” (1987) and co-lead guitar on Winger’s cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”. He also had a part in The Running Man and a cameo in Pretty in Pink. In the 1990s, he worked on “What the Hell Was I Thinking?” a 75-minute piece featuring guitar solos by famous guitar players.
Dweezil Zappa has had a long and varied career, ranging from recording a cover of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” with Ozzy Osbourne in 1991 to providing vocals for the animated series Duckman, appearing in the television sitcom Normal Life, playing music agent John Kaplan in Jack Frost and starring in the show Happy Hour in 1999. In 2003 he performed the opening guitar solo and sang on the track, “Genius in France” for Weird Al Yankovic’s album Poodle Hat. Zappa’s 2006 “Zappa Plays Zappa” tour brought the music of his father, Frank Zappa, to a younger audience, and in 2016, he went on tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of Frank Zappa’s album Freak Out! The tour was titled “50 Years of Frank: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants – The Cease and Desist Tour”.
Her Grandfather, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. Influenced by 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop, he wrote classical music in high school and played drums in rhythm and blues bands. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion and an advocate for freedom of speech and political participation. He produced 60-plus albums and directed films and music videos. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
