Moon Unit Zappa

Moon Unit Zappa is an American actress, artist, singer, tea merchant, and author. She is the daughter of musician Frank Zappa. Moon first entered the professional global spotlight in 1982 at age fourteen with the surprise hit song ‘Valley Girl’, a satirical look at teenage female culture and musical collaboration with her late father, American composer Frank Zappa. After her showbiz comeuppance winning such *coveted* roles as “American girl” in ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’, “hitchhiking val” on the TV show ‘ChiPs’, and "woman in a burka" on Curb your Enthusiasm, Moon switched gears and found her true calling - storytelling. Leap-frogging from music to journalism to humorous essays, alternative comedy, podcasting, scriptwriting, and a comedic debut novel, America the Beautiful. Her second book, Earth To Moon – A Memoir, is available as a pre-order now: "The saying goes that God only gives you what you can handle. Well God didn't grow up in my atheist, Wiccan, fame-laden, oversexed, teetotalling, drug-free, cloistered, chaotic, non-communicative, workaholic, feral-feeling house." A child-star at age 14 after her accidental international hit single turned her into a reluctant celebrity, Moon Unit Zappa's life has been utterly extraordinary from her birth in 1967 into a family that was already blessed/cursed as music royalty thanks to the acknowledged genius of Frank. But what are the consequences of growing up in a family who spend most of their time naked arguing about sexual/extra-marital liaisons and practising white magic in a free-for-all state of nonconformist, virtuoso abandon? Earth to Moon is a reckoning with self-esteem, the ghosts of the past and a mother and a father who, in the process of leaving their mark upon on the world, scarred their first daughter on home soil. Brutally self-deprecating and funny as hell, it belies a rose-tinted perspective on the 70s and 80s west coast American scene, from within the belly of the beast of the rock and roll world. For Moon Unit, daughter of musician Frank and his wife and "manager," Gail, processing a life so unique, so punctuated by the whims of creative urges, the tastes of popular culture and the calculus of celebrity, has at times been eviscerating. But it is her deep sense of humour and unshakeable humility that keeps her - and this memoir - pinned to the ground. Moon Unit Zappa said: ‘I set out to humanize my father in a way his fans have never seen before and to ask: Is genius worth the collateral damage? Personally and professionally this was the most difficult and ambitious thing I have done so far.’ Lee Brackstone said: ‘Moon Unit’s memoir is astonishingly frank (pun intended), raw and often jaw-on-the-floor funny. A portrait of a chaotic life growing up in the Canyon surrounded by hippies, groupies and new age freaks, Earth to Moon is a candid account of life as the daughter of Zappa at the height of his fame and creative life and the challenges of growing up a celebrity kid with the weirdest name in the world. Liquorice Pizza meets ‘Valley Girl’ with a strong dose of the Mothers of Invention: absolutely compulsive.’