Vanessa Marcil's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Las Vegas Sam Marquez High Incident Kerry Andrews The Sharon Osbourne Show Vanessa Mar…

Main Movie Roles 2010 - The Bannen Way 1996 - The Rock

BIOGRAPHY:

Vanessa Marcil was born on October 15, 1968, in Indio, California, USA, to Peter Ortiz, a contractor, and Patricia Marcil Ortiz, an herbalist. She grew up in Palm Desert with her parents and her two older sisters Tina and Sherry and her older brother Sam. When Vanessa was 8, she started acting in plays and even performed her own song at a 6th grade talent show in which she won. Soon afterward, she began pursuing an acting career and starred in several theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the ABC daytime soap opera "General Hospital" (1963) in 1992.

She made her feature film debut in The Rock (1996) starring opposite Nicolas Cage as well as starring in a made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive (1996) (TV) in 1996. She stayed with "General Hospital" (1963) until 1998 and then left to join the cast of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990) as Gina Kincaid, a former ice skater replacing Tiffani Thiessen as the show's vixen. She met actor Brian Austin Green on the show and the two had a baby together named Kassius Lijah Marcil-Green born in March of 2002.

In the fall of 2002, she made her long awaited return to "General Hospital" (1963) reprising her role as Brenda Barrett, garnering her a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress" in 2003. Vanessa later joined the cast of the NBC drama "Las Vegas" (2003) in which she stars as Sam Marquez, a casino host. Currently, she resides in Los Angeles with her son Kassius.


TRIVIA:

• Auditioned for the part of Nancy in _I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)_ (qv) however, the part was eventually given to 'Jennifer Esposito' (qv), since the director felt her beauty would give less attention to the lead actors of the film.
• Is best friends with _"The Biggest Loser" (2009)_ (qv) trainer 'Jillian Michaels (II)' (qv) who is the godmother of her son Kassius.
• Has two dogs named Woof and Joey.
• Is a vegetarian.
• Performed her own song at a 6th grade talent show and won.
• Was offered the role of Nell Porter on _"Ally McBeal" (1997)_ (qv) but was forced to turn it down because she had already signed on to _"Beverly Hills, 90210" (1990)_ (qv). The role was then given to 'Portia de Rossi' (qv).
• Named on People magazine's "100 Most Beautiful People" list (2008), reportedly for being a muse to musician 'Prince (I)' (qv), who wrote his 1994 song "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" about her.
• She has designed a line of children's clothing called, 'Kass' (named in honor of her son Kassius) for Africa. A portion of the proceeds will go to help build schools and open centers to support and empower mothers and their children in Africa.