The scar above her right eyebrow is permanent, and a Lifetime actress now blames a dog named Scruffy for the acting work she lost.
Actress Natasha Wilson is suing dog owner Gregory Marcel in a complaint that became public Nov. 4, 2026, claiming a bite above her right eyebrow left her permanently disfigured and cost her work in front of the camera.
Wilson was walking her French bulldog at the West Hollywood Dog Park, a Los Angeles-area park, around 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2024, when she encountered Marcel and his dog, according to the filing.
A Walk That Ended on the Ground
Scruffy approached the bulldog and “stood over it in an aggressive and dominant posture,” the complaint states. Wilson picked up her bulldog, Scruffy jumped on her, and she lost her grip on the pet, according to the suit.
“Scruffy continued to attack, while Wilson was on the ground attempting to shield her dog with her body and hands,” the suit says.
The bite opened a cut that bled. Marcel accompanied Wilson to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she got stitches and a prescription for antibiotics, the suit says.
The scar is permanent, visible and painful, according to the suit, which also claims the bite altered her eyebrow and the surrounding hair pattern and impaired the movement of her right brow. Wilson has been advised that she needs scar revision surgery and further medical treatment.
The filing says the injury has kept her from her usual occupation and cost her earnings and earning capacity. Wilson is seeking economic damages covering medical expenses, wage loss and loss of earning capacity. The allegations have not been proven in court.
Old Clips and Older Photographs
Wilson played the character Maya in 14 episodes of Lifetime’s “UnREAL,” which aired between 2015 and 2018. The series starred Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer. Her credits also include the TV movies “The Best Version of Love” and “Single and Ready to Jingle.”
Her last acting credit listed on IMDb is 2024’s “Trust in Love,” released in January 2024, roughly 10 months before the alleged attack. She had four acting credits in 2023 and two in 2022, in a career stretching back to 2001.
Posts she has shared since the alleged attack appear to be clips from previously filmed projects or older photographs, a review of her social media found. A post at the end of November 2024 appeared to include an old photo, and three collaborative posts in 2025 all seemed to have been filmed earlier. Her Instagram account has carried no new post since June 2025. Whether that absence has anything to do with the alleged incident is unclear.
Liable Even on a First Attack
California Civil Code Section 3342 generally makes an owner liable for dog bites in a public place, and the statute applies whether or not the animal has shown prior aggressive behavior. That exposes owners even on a dog’s first attack.
A Los Angeles jury handed down one measure of that exposure in June 2026, awarding $12.9 million to Maria Avila, a former housekeeper for R&B singer Chris Brown. A Caucasian shepherd named Hades mauled her at Brown’s Tarzana home in December 2020, leaving extensive wounds and scarring to her face and arms. Avila claimed lasting nerve damage.
A judge later reduced the jury’s figure to $9.5 million. Avila accepted the smaller award in October 2026 rather than sit through another damages trial.
A Shelter Dog With a Past
In a separate case in Los Angeles, Kristin Wright, 75, an accountant, adopted a four-year-old gray pit bull named Valerio from the city animal shelter in South Los Angeles, which had promoted the dog in an Instagram post on Feb. 14, 2022. Two days after the adoption, Valerio broke Wright’s right arm and peeled the skin off her left arm. Wright learned only later that the dog’s previous owner had surrendered him after he bit that owner’s elderly mother in the face. Wright and her husband sued the city and reached a $3.25 million settlement, which the Los Angeles City Council approved in November 2025. Multiple surgeries left her with nerve damage and pain in her fingers and hands. State law requires shelters and rescue groups to disclose a dog’s bite history in writing, and her attorney, Ivan Puchalt, said the form she signed did not meet that requirement.
