At Columbia High School in Lake City, Fla., Joanna Demas was a straight-A student and National Merit Scholar. She breezed through the University of Florida, where she majored in chemistry as an undergraduate, and the University of Miami Medical School, which she'd entered at age 20.

She was the first doctor to pose for Playboy and did some "babe photography" with the late photographer D.R. Goff.

She was married to the late Pete Way (1951-2020) of the British band UFO from 1996-2000. (her death)

My New Advisor is her only film, which was filmed in Columbus, OH.

Her mother was an opera singer. She wanted to be an actress/singer but followed in her father's footsteps and became a doctor. She died of an accidental overdose around Christmas of 2000. She had ingested more than two times the lethal amount of cocaine; more than five times the LD of Amitriptyline and 7 times the LD of Inderal.

She was cremated and her ashes were given to her family.