In 1978, Davis posed for Playboy. In 1980, she posed for Penthouse magazine under the name Tamara Kapitas, becoming Penthouse Pet of the Month in January 1980 and a runner-up for Pet of the Year in 1981.
Acting
As an actress, Davis' first feature film was in James Cameron's horror film'. Later in the 1980s, she appeared in the comedy filmThe Flamingo Kid. Her best known film role came as Roxie Shield, the vengeful ex-girlfriend in Mannequin, a film that was widely panned by critics but later became a cult classic. She later also appeared in films such as the comedy The Shrimp on the Barbie, the comedy If Looks Could Kill, and The Rapture. She has made guest appearances on television series such as The A-Team, ', Sex and the City, Angel and more recently in 2 Broke Girls, and Madam Secretary.
Music
In 1989, Davis' career as a singer and songwriter took off when she signed with Warner Bros. Records and released her first album Heart of Gold, which was produced by Nile Rodgers. Her single "Serious Money" was a dance hit and the video was number one and became the original theme song to the hip hop music video show Rap City on BET. The song's success enabled Davis to tour Europe and Asia and perform in clubs throughout the United States. As a songwriter, Davis signed a publishing deal with MCA. In Europe, she signed on with Sony France. Davis met Prince in the 1980s and the two developed a friendship, culminating in Davis co-writing Prince's single "Slow Love" for his Grammy Award-nominated album Sign o' the Times. She recorded her own version of the song for Warner Bros. Records but subsequently left the label in 1993 and moved to Atlantic Records, where she self-produced and wrote the album I'm No Angel.
Writing
Davis has written a series of articles on anti-Semitism in Europe for The Jewish Journal. As a novelist, she is the author of The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife, a non-fiction humour book about Hollywood excess and human status anxiety written from the point of view of a death row dog. She has been a contributor for several animal welfare publications including American Dog Magazine, for who she also worked as an investigative journalist. She had an animal welfare column on Newsvine and ran her own blog Hollywood Dog through Blogspot. She is the West Coast Director of the Companion Animal Protection Society, a national non-profit organisation that investigates puppy mills and pet stores.
