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Jessica Tovey
Born	(1987-11-10) 10 November 1987 (age 37) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2004–present
Children	1
Parent(s)	Libby Gleeson Euan Tovey

Jessica Tovey (born 10 November 1987) is an Australian actress. Tovey graduated from the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and has made appearances for various drama companies. She is best known for her role of Belle Taylor on the long-running Australian soap opera Home and Away. Tovey joined the show in 2006 and was nominated for two Logie Awards during her time there. In 2009, she announced she had quit Home and Away and her character was killed off. Tovey became the face of American shoe company, Skechers. She appeared in Underbelly: The Golden Mile in 2010 and Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo in 2011.

Career

Born in Sydney, Tovey graduated from the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where she appeared in a number of stage productions. She has played leading roles at Australian Theatre for Young People, drama festivals and in The Global Shakespeare Festival, where she won acclaim for her performance in Macbeth. In 2005, she joined the cast of children's program Wicked Science, as Nadine.

After completing her schooling, Tovey joined the cast of Home and Away in 2006 as Belle Taylor. For her portrayal of the character, Tovey was nominated for Most Popular New Female Talent and Most Popular Actress at the 2007 and 2010 Logie Awards respectively. In April 2009, Tovey announced that she had quit Home and Away and her character was killed off.

In 2008, American shoe company, Skechers announced that Tovey would be their new celebrity face. Tovey became the first non-American to feature in the brand's ad campaigns. Tovey joined the cast of Underbelly: The Golden Mile in April 2010, appearing as Constable Wendy Jones. In August, it was announced she had joined the cast of Panic at Rock Island, a Nine Network telemovie drama. Tovey also made a guest appearance on police drama Cops L.A.C.. She appeared in the 2011 ABC television miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo as Leslie Carpenter. Tovey was cast as Dani Varvaris in the romantic-comedy drama Wonderland.

On stage, Tovey played in the world premiere of Lachlan Philpott's play Truck Stop for Sydney's Q Theatre Company in 2012. Further stage credits include Lola in a stage adaptation by Tom Holloway of Double Indemnity for the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2016, a touring production of Constellations by Nick Payne for the Queensland Theatre Company in 2017, and Portia in Bell Shakespeare's touring production of The Merchant of Venice the same year.

Personal life

Tovey is the daughter of author Libby Gleeson and Euan Tovey, a New Zealand research scientist. She has two older sisters, Amelia and Josephine. Her sister Josephine is a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

Tovey has been in a relationship with actor Damien Strouthos since 2017. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter, in September 2021.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

1. ^ "Cast – Jessica Tovey". RTÉ Television. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
2. Bennett, Cath (5 April 2009). "Home when away". The Dominion Post. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
3. "Logie Award nominations". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
4. "2010 Logie Awards: Full list of winners". Perth Now. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
5. Rowe, Darren (17 August 2009). "Tovey reveals reason behind 'H&A' exit". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
6. Rowe, Darren (11 May 2009). "Tovey films final 'Home and Away' scenes". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
7. ^ "Skechers' new face". The New Zealand Herald. 15 October 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
8. McWhirter, Erin (2 April 2010). "Meet the women of Underbelly, The Golden Mile". The Advertiser. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
9. Knox, David (9 August 2010). "Panic at Rock Island cast announced". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
10. Vickery, Colin (17 September 2010). "Honeymoon period over for Cops LAC after ratings dive". Herald Sun. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
11. "Paper Giants: the story of Cleo". The Australian. 29 March 2011. Archived from the original on 20 April 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
12. Nauman, Zoe (28 April 2013). "Brooke back as Wonder woman". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
13. "Truck Stop stars Eryn Jean Norvill, Jessica Tovey, Kristy Best and Elena Carapetis" by Melissa Matheson, The Daily Telegraph, 25 May 2012
14. "Theatre review: Double Indemnity, Melbourne Theatre Company", Herald Sun, 6 June 2016
15. Constellations review by Sonny Clarke, AussieTheatre.com, 10 April 2017
16. "Bell Shakespeare's new Merchant of Venice calls out casual racism" by Elissa Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 2017
17. ^ "Papers of Libby Gleeson (1950– )". National Library of Australia. July 1998. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
18. "National News Headlines – Latest Australian Breaking News". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
19. Doyle, Erin (4 October 2021). "It's a girl! Home and Away star gives birth". New Idea. Retrieved 25 October 2021.

External links

• Jessica Tovey at IMDb
• "Girl wonder" by Elissa Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 September 2013

• 1987 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Australian actresses
• Actresses from Sydney
• Australian film actresses
• Australian people of New Zealand descent
• Australian soap opera actresses
• Australian stage actresses
• People educated at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts