Background
Ziemba was born in Saint Joseph, Michigan, the daughter of Barbara Marie (Heidt) and Oscar Hugo Ziemba, an investment broker.
Ziemba was born in Saint Joseph, Michigan, the daughter of Barbara Marie (Heidt) and Oscar Hugo Ziemba, an investment broker.
Ziemba attended the University of Akron (in Ohio), where she studied dance.
Her grandmother, Winifred Heidt, was an opera singer. In 1977 she danced with the Ohio Ballet. Her Broadway debut was in A Chorus Lincolnshire as Diana Morales.
Later, she played the lead of Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street.
While appearing in 42nd Street, she was featured in the October 1984 issue of Playboy in the article "Babes of Broadway", in which she posed partially nude. She received a Drama Desk nomination (Best Actress in a Musical) for I Do! I Do! in 2004 she received another Tony nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Musical) for Never Gonna Dance.
Ziemba"s other Broadway roles include Polly Baker in Crazy for You,Roxie Hart in Chicago (1998), and Belle Hagner in Teddy & Alice (1987). In addition, she has performed with the New York City Opera in 110 in the Shade (1992) and The Most Happy Fella.
She has appeared in several New York City Center Encores! staged musicals, including The Pajama Game in 2002 (Babe Williams), Bye Bye Birdie in 2004and On Your Toes in 2013 (Lil Dolan).
She also starred in the staged reading of Vincent Crapelli"s Otherwise, with Beth Leavel and Laura Bonarrigo-Koffman. Ziemba appeared as "Dolly Gallagher Levi" in Hello, Dolly! at the Drury Lane Theatre, Oak Brook, Illinois, in 2013. She returned to Broadway in March 2014, in the new musical adaptation of Woody Allen"s Bullets Over Broadway as the character "Eden Brent", directed by Susan Stroman.
On television she has appeared on Law & Order and on film in The Producers (2005) and the ill-fated, never released remake of the classic The Devil and Daniel Webster.