Eliza Szonert

Eliza Szonert (born 29 January 1974) is an Australian actress.

Born in Victoria, Australia, Szonert is best known for playing Danni Stark in Australia's long-running soap opera, Neighbours, from 1993 to 1996. Szonert reprised the role in 2005 for the show's 20th anniversary.

After leaving Neighbours, she relocated to Los Angeles, taking parts in various television series, mostly notably Buffy The Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel. Whilst there she married an American businessman, and had three daughters. Szonert also played Janine Kellerman in the Australian film, The Dish in 2000. She had a minor role in Stingers and has acted on stage. Szonert then played Trish Moran on the Australian television show, Underbelly.

After her divorce, she moved home to Melbourne, where she started a relationship with an Australian businessman, with whom she shares custody of their son.

In late 2015, Szonert made international headlines after snatching her son back from her ex-partner in Malaysia, after engaging a controversial child recovery agency. In subsequent court proceedings in Malaysia, it was revealed that Szonert had just previously spent eight weeks at The Cabin Chiang Mai rehabilitation centre in Thailand, and was ordered to spend 24 hours in custody in jail after not revealing the location of her son to the court. After agreeing to let a doctor examine her son, and with mediation undertaken at the Australian embassy, Szonert and her son were allowed to return to Australia. In 2016, Szonert threatened to sue New Idea because the magazine refused to pay her an agreed sum of A$7000 for a tell-all interview about claiming back her child from an ex-partner living overseas, with the magazine claiming she had lied about entering the rehab centre.