Where Are They Now?


Wondering what the cast of Empty Nest is up to nowadays? Here are some updates.


Richard Mulligan
Richard made a couple television films and guest appearances after Empty Nest ended. He died in September 2000 after a long battle with colon cancer. 

Kristy McNichol
Since her departure from Empty Nest in 1992, Kristy has retired from acting, although she lended her voice to the 1998 animated series Invasion America. She is involved in charity work and has taught drama at a Los Angeles high school.

Dinah Manoff
When the show ended, Dinah continued to make guest appearances and direct episodes of various shows before returning to series television with a two-season run on the ABC Family original series State of Grace in 2001. She appeared in the films The Amati Girls (2000) with Cloris Leachman and A Carol Christmas (2003) with Tori Spelling. Married with three children, Dinah and her family currently live on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where she is active in local theater and teaches acting workshops while occasionally continuing to act herself. Her most recent appearances include the critically acclaimed 2008 independent comedy Bart Got a Room and the 2009 Web-based series Lose Yourself.

David Leisure
Since his days as Charley Dietz, David Leisure has made television guest appearances (Diagnosis Murder, Caroline in the City, Action) and movies (10 Things I Hate About You, 3 Strikes). He appeared in Park Overall's Intimate Portrait which debuted in October 2000 on Lifetime. Well known for his previous role as Joe Isuzu, David did a new series of commercials for the Isuzu company in 2001.  He appeared in National Lampoon's Teed Off, a film featuring golf-related skit comedy and practical jokes, and its sequel Teed Off Too , in 2005 and 2006, respectively.  In 2009, David joined the cast of the soap opera The Young & the Restless .

Park Overall
After Empty Nest, Park worked in the theater and in films such as Sparkler and Abilene. Her sitcom Katie Joplin was axed before ever airing on The WB Network (the few produced episodes aired in 1999). She turned up again on television in the series Ladies Man (alongside Golden Girl Betty White). She has made three original television movies for Lifetime: Fifteen and Pregnant, Price of a Broken Heart and When Andrew Came Home. Her Intimate Portrait premiered on the cable channel in the fall of 2000. Park had a recurring role on the WB Network sitcom Reba starring Reba McEntire during the show's first two seasons in 2001-2002.  She resurfaced in 2008 in the film Beer for My Horses alongside country music star Toby Keith. Park is also an active environmentalist and spends a good deal of time in her hometown of Greeneville, Tennessee.

Paul Provenza
Paul Provenza joined Northern Exposure after his one-season run on Empty Nest. After that series ended in 1995, he went on to appear in the films Plump Fiction, Nothing Sacred, and The Hungry Bachelors Club, as well as the series Beggars and Choosers and The West Wing. Paul has also moved behind the camera, writing, producing, and directing projects including the star-studded documentary The Aristocrats, released in 2005. In 2010, he released the book Satiristas and launched the Showtime series The Green Room with Paul Provenza featuring some of the world's greatest comedians in a roundtable setting. 

Lisa Rieffel
Since her brief half-season as Emily Weston, Lisa has been a regular on the series Women of the House with Delta Burke and The King of Queens. She has also appeared in the films Forget Paris, The Patron Saint of Liars, and Drowning Mona. Today, Lisa stars in the Web series Girltrash and is lead singer for the popular Los Angeles based rock band Killola. They have released three albums, including 2010's Let's Get Associated. The band has also penned the music for a feature-film version of the Girltrash series in which Lisa stars. The film is slated for release in 2011.

Marsha Warfield
Marsha appeared in the 1997 film Doomsday Rock and has made appearances on a variety of television series: Smart Guy, Moesha, Living Single, Touched by an Angel, Cybill, Clueless, Love Boat: The Next Wave, Veronica's Closet and Mad About You. In 2000, she appeared on a celebrity edition of the game show Family Feud titled "Funny Men vs. Funny Women" and in 2003 appeared on an episode of E! Network's Star Dates series. A respected comedienne, these days Marsha's humorous insights can be found on her Facebook and Twitter pages.

Estelle Getty
After a ten year/three series run as Sophia Petrillo, Estelle went on to appear in Stuart Little and made guest appearances on Touched by an Angel, Mad About You, and Ladies Man. Estelle suffered from dementia in her later years and died at the age of 84 in July of 2008.

Bear
At the suggestion of site visitors, I am including Bear (a.k.a. Dreyfuss) on this page, but unfortunately I am unsure of what became of him following Empty Nest. If anyone knows what happened to Bear after the show ended, feel free to e-mail me .