For those of you who might not know…about Diva Magika

Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen Zappa was born on 30 July 1979 and is Frank and Gail’s youngest child. She was named Diva due the loud quality of her voice, which her father said was audible at 300 yards.

One day when she was little, Diva refused to leave her room and go to school. After Gail’s failed attempts to lure her out, Frank had a go. He ordered Diva to take a piece of paper and list her two most prized possessions. He told her that if she didn’t leave for school immediately, those two things would be taken away from her. She slid a piece of paper under her door – on it, she had written: ‘Mom and Dad.’ Frank told her, “Okay, you’re smart enough. You can stay home.”

She was 14 when Frank passed and continued to live at the family home on Woodrow Wilson until her mother passed in 2015 and the house was sold (initially to Lady Gaga: today it is owned by Mick Jagger’s daughter Lizzy).

She can be seen in Baby Snakes (the movie) (1979) and Summer ‘82: When Zappa Came To Sicily (2013), and heard on her brother Dweezil’s Havin’ A Bad Day album, produced by their dad. She can also be heard on 200 Motels – The Suites (Official Release #101) as Janet (Groupie 1) recorded at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA on 23 October 2013; six days later she played Groupie 2 (Lucy) at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

In 1999, Diva wrote and recorded four songs with Dweezil – Girly Woman, When The Ball Drops, Alice and Espanoza – which can be found on the digital download only AAAFNRAA birthday bundle series on iTunes.

When The Ball Drops is notable for featuring Tipper Gore on drums. Gore is the former wife of the 45th vice president of the US, Al Gore. In the mid-80s, she co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), which advocated for the labelling of record covers featuring profane language, which Frank vehemently opposed.

Diva’s photography adorns a number of posthumous Zappa releases, including “Congress Shall Make No Law...” (2010), Carnegie Hall (2011), Understanding America (2012), Road Tapes, Venue #1 (2012), Road Tapes, Venue #2 (2013) and Road Tapes, Venue #3 (2016).

Diva has acted in several B-movies, such as Do Not Disturb (2011), The Bloody Indulgent (2014), All The Creatures Were Stirring (2018), Vampire Burt’s Serenade (2020), Next Exit and I Heard Sarah (both 2022).

In 2007, she appeared as the character Astrid in Party – the fifth episode of the third season of BBC TV’s The Mighty Boosh.

In 2010, The Mighty Boosh Band were invited to play at FZ’s 70th birthday celebrations at London’s Roundhouse, right before Zappa Plays Zappa. During the song Charlie, Diva joined them on stage in the titular Hubba Bubba nightmare costume.

Regular Boosh collaborators include Zappa fan Matt Berry, who played owner of the Zooniverse Dixon Bainbridge in the first series, and Rich Fulcher, whose main characters were Bob Fossil and Lester Corncrake; Fulcher also played the part of Lonesome Cowboy Burt in the LA production of 200 Motels – The Suites.

In 2011, Diva’s first British art exhibition – named ‘Bruce’ after the star of her favourite movie, Die Hard – was held at the Maison Bertaux Gallery in London’s oldest French patisserie in 2011. It ran from 4 February to 1 June and featured her knitwear art pieces and couture canvas.

The Boosh’s Noel Fielding told me this came about when Gail and Diva visited London a few years earlier and he took them to see Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. Beforehand they went to the patisserie in nearby Greek Street, where there was an art exhibition running. Noel noticed that, “Diva was sitting under a picture of her dad. I thought I’ve got to buy it for her. And that’s how I met the woman who ran Maison Bertaux. I showed her a few of my paintings. Then she did an interview and was asked what’s your next art show going to be. She rang me up and said, ‘I told them you’re doing one!’ So I said, ‘Oh, we’d better then.’ And it was through that that Diva did a show there for her knitting.”

Diva has been knitting a mile long scarf for more than ten years. She hopes to complete it within the next 15, but only knits “when she feels completely present”.

On her mother’s demise, Diva became President of Intercontinental Absurdities and the Chief Operating Officer at both Munchkin Music and Honker Home Video and Digital. She later became Co-Trustee of Zappa Records and Vice President of Bizarre Industries.

As a licensor for Funko, she was involved in the deal that lead to the production of the Frank Zappa Pop! vinyl doll.

Diva has also owned a number of trademarks for various services, such as ‘Rustic Pudding’ (which covered the rental of social function facilities for special occasions), ‘Sexy Bitch’ (the publishing company for her Birthday Bundle songs with Dweezil), ‘Power Animal’ (Universal Protein Supplements), ‘Diva Z Bra’ (Pacific Sunwear) and ‘Leafstar’ (who unironically sold $70 lycra leggings utilising the cover art for We’re Only In It For The Money in 2016 – “made with magic and faerie dust”).

Today she goes by the name of Diva Magika and describes herself as a conceptual artist, healer, knittress and baker. Ahmet sarcastically refers to her as a ‘Taroist’, as she reads cards for her followers on Instagram on a daily basis.

Diva is the only sibling not to have publicly criticised her parents or brothers and sister. Also, unlike her siblings, she has never been romantically linked with an actor or musician...or anyone, for that matter.