A walk through a Los Angeles-area dog park with a French bulldog ended, according to a lawsuit, with a television actress on the ground and bleeding from a bite above her eye.
Natasha Wilson, an actress whose credits include Lifetime’s “UnREAL,” is suing dog owner Gregory Marcel over a bite above her eyebrow that the lawsuit says left her permanently disfigured and cost her acting work, according to details of the complaint that became public Nov. 4, 2026.
Wilson was walking her French bulldog through the West Hollywood Dog Park at around 9:40 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2024, when she encountered Marcel and his dog, Scruffy, the filing says.
The Grip She Lost on Her Bulldog
Scruffy approached the bulldog and “stood over it in an aggressive and dominant posture,” the complaint states.
Wilson picked up her pet, and Scruffy jumped on her, she lost her grip on the bulldog, and the dog’s bite landed on her face, above the right eyebrow, opening a cut that bled.
“Scruffy continued to attack, while Wilson was on the ground attempting to shield her dog with her body and hands,” the suit says.
What the Stitches Could Not Undo
Marcel went with Wilson to the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to the suit. Her treatment there included stitches and a prescription for antibiotics.
The scar is permanent, visible and painful, the suit says, and it has altered her eyebrow and the surrounding hair pattern. Her right brow no longer moves as it should, and doctors have told her that scar revision surgery and further medical treatment will be necessary.
The injury has kept Wilson from her usual occupation and cost her earnings and earning capacity, the filing says. She is seeking economic damages that include medical expenses, wage loss and loss of earning capacity.
Wilson appeared in several episodes of “UnREAL,” the Lifetime series that aired between 2015 and 2018, and her television movies include “The Best Version of Love” and “Single and Ready to Jingle.” Her last acting credit listed on IMDb is “Trust in Love,” released in January 2024, about 10 months before the alleged attack. She has not been active on social media in the two years since the alleged attack; her last Instagram post was dated June 2025, and the account has 12,300 followers.
The allegations have not been proven in court.
Liable Even on a First Bite
California Civil Code Section 3342 generally holds a dog’s owner liable for a bite in a public place, and the statute applies whether or not the animal has shown prior aggressive behavior, which leaves owners exposed even on a first attack.
A former housekeeper for R&B singer Chris Brown, Maria Avila, won $12.9 million from a Los Angeles jury in June 2026 over a mauling by Brown’s Caucasian shepherd, Hades, at his Tarzana home in December 2020. Her face and arms were left with extensive wounds and scarring, and she claimed lasting nerve damage.
The jury’s figure was later reduced by a judge to $9.5 million. Rather than sit through another damages trial, Avila accepted the smaller award in October 2026.
Bite Histories That Went Undisclosed
In a separate case, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus mauled Genice Horta, 51, at a Los Angeles city animal shelter on Sept. 23, 2020. A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury awarded her $5.4 million after a 10-day trial on a lawsuit filed in 2022. Horta said neither the shelter nor rescue groups disclosed that Maximus had bitten a teenager and a shelter employee, both of whom were hospitalized. Her attorneys’ brief says she underwent six surgeries on the bones and nerves of her right arm and suffered permanent damage.
In another Los Angeles case, the city paid Argelia Alvarado a $7.5 million settlement in June 2024 after her son adopted a pit bull from a city shelter and she lost an arm. The dog had previously bitten a jogger in both arms, and that history was not disclosed.