Vanessa Haywood

Vanessa Haywood is one of South Africa's great up and coming actresses

To add to her filmography, Vanessa's first big block buster, District 9 (a Peter Jackson film) has taken the world by storm.
It spent many weeks at no.1 in the USA, Russia, UK and South Africa. Vanessa plays the leading lady, Tania, who is the wife of Wikus (Sharlto Copley).
There has been much talk about District 9 being nominated for Oscars.

Vanessa has been acting since she was 4 years old; having performed on stage in both plays and dance shows.
She also spent many years as a model and eventually progressed into television and film. She's presented on a few television shows as well as documentaries.

Vanessa will be basing herself in Los Angeles in the near future, pursuing her acting career from there.

Biography

Vanessa grew up on a farm in Mpumalanga, South Africa and spent most of her childhood running in wheat fields and covered in mud!

When she and her family moved to the city (Pietersburg), her mum encouraged her to do some finishing courses and enter beauty contests so that Vanessa would hopefully overcome her shyness.
She completed a few finishing and modelling courses, and went on to become Miss Spring, Miss Bushveld, Miss Tropica, Miss Valentine, Miss Cameo, Miss Pietersburg, to name a few.

Chiropractic Medicine was Vanessa's chosen degree to study in Durban, but due to terrible violence on campus that year, she put that on hold, and went on to study a marketing and business management degree, which she obtained in 2001.

In 2000, Vanessa was a Miss South Africa finalist and things really took off from there. Ice Models saw her at the contest and asked her to join their agency.

After completing her degree, Vanessa started travelling extensively for modelling assignments and got to see the world! She lived in London and in Hamburg, travelled to exotic destinations such as Costa Rico, Cocos Island, The Canary Islands, Sardinia, Thailand, The Bahamas, Mauritius and many more.

Her modelling career has been very successful."I have met wonderful people all over the world and have been on the covers of many local and international magazines (W Magazine, Shape, Chat, Fitness, Shape, Woman and Home, Prima, Bicycling, Runner's World, WOW, Top Sante, Tina etc). I have shot many local and international TV commercials and have shot countless clothing catalogues and advertising campaigns."

In 2005, Vanessa became a fitness athlete and began competing in fitness competitions nation wide. She was placed 4th in the internationally acclaimed Miss Fitness which was her first competition!
Vanessa secured many great sponsorships as a result and was featured in both Muscle Evolution and Fitness magazines. She appeared on the cover of Fitness magazine twice.

In 2007, Vanessa was chosen as the Shape Cover Look of the Year winner, securing a Shape magazine cover and opening many doors for her.

Vanessa also studied drama as she has a great love for stage and film, having performed as an actress and dancer on stage many times when she was younger.
She had small roles in 'Hey Boy' directed by Brendan Pollecut and 'Blood Diamond' directed by Edward Zwick.
Her big break came in 2009 when she was cast as a lead for District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), which premiered worldwide in August 2009.

Vanessa's television career started well before her acting career, having presented for Groen (Kyknet), Top Billing (SABC 3), AgriTV (SABC 1) and Wildlife Video Cast (Asia).
She also presented many corporate videos and does voice-overs.

"I currently own a marketing and events company, called Bliss Marketing, which is a dream come true! I enjoy the work thoroughly and have a great team of people I work with.The world is my oyster and I can't wait to see what's to come..."