 Vanessa Stacey was born in Invercargill, New Zealand.At the age of 7, she and her older brother Martin appeared as film extras with her father, a stuntman, in the 1986 post-apocalyptic film "Battle Truck" and the 1988 fantasy-adventure film "Willow".She became involved with community theatre groups, debating teams and theatre sports groups during high school as well as performing in a number of school choirs.