Vanessa Stacey

Vanessa Stacey (born August 7, 1975) is a New Zealand film, television and stage actress as well as a former playwright, comedienne and musician. Best known as Alice in the New Zealand cult science fiction series The Tribe^[2] and as Brenda Blue in the British children's television show Jay Jay the Jet Plane, she also had roles in the first and third parts of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

Biography

Vanessa Stacey was born in Invercargill, New Zealand. At the age of 7, she and her older brother Martin appeared as film extras with her father, a stuntman, in the 1982 post-apocalyptic film Battle Truck and the 1988 fantasy-adventure film Willow.^[2] She became involved with community theatre groups, debating teams and theatre sports groups during high school as well as performing in a number of school choirs. Stacey also joined her first band during this time, recording several cover songs, and began performing at local nightclubs the following year.

After her graduation, Stacey became a hairdresser at Ali Barbers and eventually started her own salon, Absolutely Fabulous Hair Design, in 1995. That same year, she joined Hagley Theatre Company where she remained a regular cast member for over two years and acted in various stage productions including Charlotte's Web,^[2] Animal Farm and The Cherry Orchard. Appearing in Heavenly Creatures (1994) and The Frighteners (1995) ^[2] during this time, she decided to become a full-time actress and closed her salon after 8 months.

Stacey attended the Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School receiving a diploma in directing performance art and a certificate in jazz theory and performance.^[2] She spent a year touring New Zealand with several Jazz and Blues bands before moving to Wellington in 1996. Within three weeks, she appeared in one of the leading role in The Young And Hungry Festival giving the freelance actress her first breakout role.

Stacey then wrote and directed the one act play, Work in Progress,^[2] which ran for three seasons. She spent the next year or so performing in the Wellington-area, including guest starring on the comedy television show Pulp Comedy, before she was cast with Jennyfer Jewell (Ellie) as Alice in the longrunning teen drama series The Tribe. Although the two were initially brought in for a one-time appearance, the characters proved so popular that Cloud 9 brought them back as regular cast members during the second and third seasons. Stacy's appearance in particular, according to a viewer pool by Channel 5, the episode was the highest ever received for a guest star. In 2001, she and other cast members performing on the spin-off album Abe Messiah, providing backup vocals for "Banging The Drum" and "Beep Beep".

On April 14, 2001, Stacey also made a special appearance on Channel 5's teen block The Core as part of a Tribe promotional tour in the United Kingdom. Her appearance led to several other appearances on Channel 5 including hosting the Channel 5 Road Show in the summer of that year in which she performed an 8 minute stand up comedy routine. However, Stacy before more recognizable as Brenda Blue in the children's television show Jay Jay The Jet Plane ^[3] in which she played Brenda Blue a lady who kept and maintained the working of her jet planes.

While in London, she was also involved in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy providing the voiceover for one of the hobbit children in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. She also filmed a number of scenes for the film, most notably appearing as one of the guest hobbits at the 111th Birthday party of hobbit Bilbo Baggins, although her scenes were cut from the final film. In December 2001, she attended the London premiere of Fellowship of the Rings with Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen. She later appeared on screen as a minor character in a scene with Frodo in the third and final part of the series The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Stacey spent the next two years teaching music and drama ^[4] and working part-time as a hairdresser while in London. She also directed several television programs for the BBC before returning to New Zealand in 2003.

She and several other former cast members returned for the season five finale, but the show was cancelled before the sixth season began filming. Following the show's cancellation, she was involved in the spin-off series The New Tomorrow as an acting and voice coach. Former cast member Caleb Ross (Lex) also worked as a foley artist on the show.

In 2005, Stacy had a guest appearance in the Hercules television miniseries and, the next year, appeared in a supporting role in Robert Sarkies's drama Out of the Blue.

She is currently a singer of the group Whiskey and Sly.

References

External links

• Vanessa Stacey at the Internet Movie Database