Biography Of Priscilla Bonnet

Priscilla Bonnet was born on the Gold Coast, Queensland to her French father, Michel and Australian mother, Patricia. It was the Bonnet's second child, their first being Priscilla's sister, Amelie who was 18 months older. Her parents owned and operated more than 17 restaurants throughout Queensland. Priscilla's mother enrolled her in performing arts school at the age of four where she learnt to dance (tap, ballet and jazz), sing and act and play piano and violin. Priscilla loved performing from a young age, and relished every moment her parents allowed her to put on a show for the customers at her parents restaurants. Priscilla and Amelie would get into full costume and makeup for these much anticipated events.

These early performances set the path for Priscilla to follow in her junior school years where she took the leading role in all the school's plays and musicals from year 3 through to year 7. At this time, she was also part of the "Young Australians" group which toured Queensland which also featured the now pop star Natalie Imbruglia. She also appeared in many tv and print commercials from a young age.

Priscilla's mother played a great part in influencing her passion for the arts by taking her at every chance possible to the latest films and theatrical productions. Her mother also encouraged her to watch the classic movies, where she became mesmerized by the acting skills of Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball and many others.

Every year since she was about 3, her parents would take her and her sister to France for the Christmas holidays to see their grandparents and cousins – they would stop by Los Angeles on their way every year and this is where Priscilla's fascination with Hollywood and the movies began.

After completing high school, Priscilla was offered a scholarship to Australia's most prestigious law school but turned it down to pursue her dream of going to acting school in America. She ventured to Los Angeles by herself at the age of 17 where she enrolled in the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre in West Hollywood. Here she studied under the direction of many talented teachers such as Susan Anspach, Mark Marno and Anna Strasberg for 3 years.

On completion of her acting degree she was approached by an Australian producer Stephen Rice, to take a leading role in a cutting edge new Australian series called the "Dream Factory", which she shot in Los Angeles. When Priscilla returned to Australia to do publicity for the show, she also became a presenter on Australia's number one day time series "Beauty and the Beast".

In 2002, Priscilla won a competition held by Rolling Stone magazine and L'Oreal Cosmetics where they searched for "Australia's Hottest New Female Recording artist" and was given the opportunity to write and record her own songs. Priscilla had been writing songs since she was 7 years old. This was truly a dream come true for her. About a month into recording she learnt that she had won the role to play one of her life long idols, Bette Davis in the CBS mini series "Redhead" directed by Glenn Jordon and executive produced by Neil Meron And Craig Zadan. Priscilla travelled to New Zealand to shoot the film – they cut off all her hair (which was down nearly to her waist) and dyed her brown hair platinum blonde for the role.

Web site by John Jolley