Following this, Vela moved to New York, where her modeling career took off and she graced the covers of magazines including Vogue and Newsweek from 1975 onwards, and appeared in numerous television commercials.
Vela has also appeared in several films, including Heaven's Gate (as the "beautiful girl" with whom Kris Kristofferson's character falls in love during Harvard's graduation ceremony scene),[4] The Two Jakes with Jack Nicholson and Inside Edge opposite Michael Madsen.
It included contributions from both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (two of Vela's musical heroes) six years after they had disbanded their group Steely Dan.
Following Zazu, Vela did not release any further recordings but has since become a backing vocalist for other musicians including Electric Light Orchestra on their 2001 album Zoom.
Vela also performed a few shows with the band and was in a relationship with ELO's frontman Jeff Lynne for seven years.