Natalie Bassingthwaighte

Natalie Bassingthwaighte (born 1 September 1975 in Wollongong, Australia) is an Australian actress and singer, best-known for playing the role of Izzy Hoyland in the soap opera Neighbours and being the lead vocalist of Rogue Traders.

Career

Acting

Bassingthwaighte made her first television appearance in the 1998 episode of All Saints "Touch and Go". She had a few other roles before being cast on Neighbours. Here, Bassingthwaighte was involved in several big storylines involving her character's evil streak, and while she left the show in late 2006 to focus on her singing career, she returned to the show in March, 2007. Depending on the success of her upcoming albums, Natalie said she may reprise the role of Izzy permanently if she doesn't succeed in future singing enterprises^{[citation needed]}.

In 2006 Natalie was nominated for the first time since being on Neighbours for a Gold Logie. The Gold Logie is the biggest award to win at the Australian TV Week Logie Awards in which it is presented to the "Most Popular Personality on Television". She was also nominated for a Silver Logie for Best Actress, but failed to win either award.

In 2004, Natalie filmed a role in the low budget Australian movie When Darkness Falls directed by Rohan Spong. She played the character of Jinx de Luxe and sang the Marilyn Monroe song Every Baby Needs a Da Da Daddy onscreen.

Natalie will star in an upcoming Australian horror film titled Prey ^[1].

Singing

Natalie has performed in many musicals, mostly with a rock flavour including RENT, Footloose and has several times over the past 5 years toured as Sandy in Grease, against Craig McLachlan and Miguel Ayesa, who was her castmate in RENT. Most Grease productions were 'Arena Spectaculars' with many big names presented, instead of focusing on the lead actors.

From late 2004 she has been the lead singer of Australian pop group Rogue Traders, a band which had some limited success in the years before she joined. Natalie auditioned along with several other musicians and succeeded in getting the part fairly quickly. At first the band seemed keen to keep Natalie's involvement in the Rogue Traders under wraps, and it wasn't until the band's first single release with Natalie on board that fans became aware of Natalie's position. The Rogue Traders achieved great success with their album Here Come The Drums, led by the hit single Voodoo Child.

Home: Songs Of Hope & Journey, a compilation that was released on November 25, 2006, features a duet with Shannon Noll, is a cover of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's Don't Give Up. The song was released as a single on December 9, 2006, debuting on the ARIA Charts at number seven, before peaking at number 2 the following week.

Natalie also contributed on The Spirit of Christmas 2006, a Christmas compilation album in which all proceeds go to The Salvation Army in Australia.

Natalie confirmed on the 2006 season final of Dancing With the Stars that she was working on the Rogue Traders' next album as well as her own solo album.

On January 2 2007 Natalie with her band Rogue Traders played at the opening ceremony of AJ2007.

In the March edition of FHM Natalie placed number 47 in the sexiest Aussie babes competition. It was said in the article that Natalie is working on a solo album, with a now title of Not A Little Girl Anymore. No release date for the album is known yet. It is believed to be before or after the Rogue Traders new album is released.

Private life

Whilst Bassingthwaighte has previously kept her private life out of the public eye she has been photographed at various events with current boyfriend, Cameron McGlinchey, who is the percussionist in the Rogue Traders. Natalie has previously been linked to assistant Neighbours director Ryan Eckersley ^[2]. In the December 2006 issue of Men's Style magazine, Bassingthwaighte commented that she had a brief marriage to an unnamed man when she was 23. ^[3].

Bassingthwaighte was involved in the World Hunger campaign organised by CARE Australia in 2005. She has also supported several other charities as she rose to fame such as Variety Club and Beyond Blue ^[4].

References

Wikipedia information about Natalie Bassingthwaighte This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Natalie Bassingthwaighte". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.