Vanessa Marcil was born on October 15, 1968, in Indio, California, to Peter Ortiz, a contractor, and Patricia Marcil Ortiz, an herbalist. She grew up in Palm Desert with her parents and her two older sisters Tina (born October 20, 1959) and Sherry (born September 7, 1962) and her older brother Sam (born November 16, 1958). When Vanessa was 8 she started acting in plays and even performed her own song at a sixth-grade talent show, which she won. Soon afterward she began pursuing an acting career and starred in several theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the ABC daytime soap opera Hôpital central (1963) in 1992.
She made her feature film debut in Rock (1996) opposite Nicolas Cage and starred in a made-for-television movie, Liaisons obscures (1996), in 1996. She stayed with Hôpital central (1963) until 1998 and then left to join the cast of Beverly Hills (1990) as Gina Kincaid, a former ice skater replacing Tiffani Thiessen as the show's vixen. She met Brian Austin Green on the show and the two had a baby together named Kassius Lijah Marcil-Green born on March 30, 2002.
In the fall of 2002 she made her long-awaited return to Hôpital central (1963) reprising her role as Brenda Barrett, garnering her a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress" in 2003. Vanessa later joined the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas (2003) as Sam Marquez, a casino host where she remained on the show for five seasons until 2008. That same year she became the host of Lifetime's reality show Blush: The Search for America's Greatest Makeup Artist (2008) as well as making a three episode guest appearance on the NBC show Les reines de Manhattan (2008).
In 2009, she starred in the Hallmark channel movie Nanny Express (2008) as well as in the Lifetime movie Sous le soleil de Miami (2009). In 2010, she was in the web series The Bannen Way (2010) and in August 2010 after a seven year absence, she made her return to Hôpital central (1963) remaining on the show for a year before her departure from the show in July 2011. Although she did make a guest appearance in April 2013 to commemorate the show's 50th anniversary.
Then in 2014, she starred in the Hallmark channel movie, Paradis d'amour (2014) alongside James Denton. She is writing a book about her life which will be released in the near future. She resides in Los Angeles, California with her son Kassius.
