Lesley-Ann Brandt

Born: 02/12/1981 (41 yo)
Birth place: Cape Town (South Africa)

Citizenship : South-Africa

Occupation : Actress
Active Years: 2007 to present

Summary

Lesley-Ann Brandt is a South African-born actress (of Cape Coloured descent) who is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and Los Angeles, United States. Brandt has acted in a number of New Zealand television series and first came to international notice with her role as a slave girl Naevia in the series Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

Biography

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she is a fluent Afrikaans speaker and lists yoga, hockey and baseball amongst her interests. In South Africa she played competitive field hockey. In 1999 Brandt emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, with her parents and her younger brother.

Lesley-Ann Brandt started work in retail sales in Auckland before securing work as an information technology recruitment consultant. She also worked as a promo-girl for Red Bull. Following some modelling work she was cast in a number of New Zealand television advertisements. She studied acting and was trained in the Meisner technique, an improvisational approach to character development, in 2008.

Career

Brandt's first significant acting role was in the New Zealand television series Diplomatic Immunity. As well as her lead role in Diplomatic Immunity, Brandt has appeared in guest roles on the New Zealand hospital based soap opera series Shortland Street and This Is Not My Life, a science fiction series set in the 2020s in the fictional town of Waimoana.

She originally auditioned for the role of Sura in Spartacus: Blood and Sand but the casting director suggested to audition for the role of Naevia instead. She worked with actors John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, Peter Mensah and producers Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi.[4] Her role as the slave girl Naevia in the series Spartacus: Blood and Sand led to a part in the Spartacus prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. and the New Zealand coming of age feature film The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell about the victim of a kart racing accident filmed in Howick, a suburb of East Auckland.

Brandt would not return for season 2 of Spartacus after Andy Whitfield's passing due to scheduling conflicts and production delays. Her manager, Steven Jensen, stated "She'd like to go back, but they really haven't gotten the number we're looking for." He said she would reconsider "if they step up." STARZ had no comment.

Brandt is also featuring in a new film InSight in which she plays a nurse called Valerie Khoury. In May 2010 Brandt guest starred on Legend of the Seeker, another Rob Tapert/Sam Raimi produced show which was filmed in New Zealand (2009). She appeared in the Season 2 season finale Episode 22 "Tears" in the role of Sister Thea.

Brandt guest starred on CSI: NY: "Smooth Criminal" and "Food for Thought", but did not renew her contract for the second season of Spartacus titled Spartacus: Vengeance in 2011.

In 2011 she guest appeared in TNT's Memphis Beat which was soon followed by a lead role (she played Cassie) in Syfy's highest rated original feature for 2011 Zombie Apocalypse starring opposite Ving Rhames and Taryn Manning, the feature film Drift starring opposite Sam Worthington and Xavier Samuel and Duke starring CSI: NY star Carmine Giovinazzo.

Brandt is now permanently based in Los Angeles.

Brandt is starring in the Lifetime post-apocalyptic series The Lottery in 2014.