Isabel Lucas
Isabel Lucas on 31 January 2013
Born	(1985-01-29) 29 January 1985 (age 28) Melbourne, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2003–present

Isabel Lucas (born 29 January 1985)^[1] is an Australian actress.^[2] She is perhaps best known for her role as Tasha Andrews on the Australian television soap opera Home and Away (2003–2006). Lucas moved to Los Angeles in early 2008 and has since been featured in film and television projects including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Immortals, The Pacific, and Daybreakers.

Early life [edit]

Lucas was born in Melbourne, Australia,^[3][1] the daughter of Beatrice, a special needs teacher, and Andrew, a pilot.^[4] Her father is Australian and her mother is Swiss, and she speaks German and French in addition to her native English.^[1] As a child, Lucas lived in Cairns, Queensland. She also lived in Switzerland and Kakadu, in the Northern Territory.^[5] Lucas went to St. Monica's College in Cairns.

Career [edit]

Lucas was involved in drama during her school years and attended courses at Victorian College of Arts and Queensland University of Technology. But Lucas had never pursued commercial roles until Sharron Meissner, a Sydney talent agent, claims she "discovered" Lucas while she was vacationing in Port Douglas. She auditioned for the role of Kit Hunter in Home and Away (now played by Amy Mizzi); although the producer of the show, Julie McGauran, felt that role was not right for Isabel, she was sufficiently impressed to have a new character, Tasha Andrews, created for her.^[1] Lucas won a Logie Award (for new popular talent) for her performance on the program.^[1] Playing Tasha Andrews on Home and Away was Lucas' first television role. She appeared in an American television commercial for Crest toothpaste.^[1] Lucas was cast as Gwen in the Steven Spielberg World War II miniseries, The Pacific. She appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Alice. Reports^[specify] suggested that although assigned to the William Morris Talent Agency in Los Angeles through the auspices of Meissner Management, Lucas obtained the role of Alice in her native Australia before moving permanently to America. It has been claimed that Lucas was handpicked by Steven Spielberg.^{[citation needed]} Michael Bay, director and producer of Transformers, has denied that Spielberg influenced the decision to cast her.^[6] Her subsequent theatrical releases included Daybreakers (8 January 2010) and Red Dawn (21 November 2012).

In 2009, she was cast in film Red Dawn alongside Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson and Home and Away cast mate and former real-life love Chris Hemsworth. The film was originally going to be released in late 2010, but due to financial problems it got pushed back to September 2011. The film was officially released on 21 November 2012.

In 2010, Lucas appeared in an advertisement for Daylesford tourism.^[7] In 2011, Lucas signed on to Terrence Malick's film Knight of Cups.^[8]

In 2011, Lucas was also cast as goddess of wisdom, Athena in Relativity Studios' "Immortals".

In November 2012, Lucas was featured as the main character in the music video for "Give Me Love" by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.^[9]

In March 2013, it was announced that Lucas will star alongside Nick Jonas in the thriller Careful What You Wish For.^[10] The film is set for a 2014 release date.

Activism [edit]

In October 2007, Lucas was part of a group of 30 people from Surfers for Cetaceans, including American actress Hayden Panettiere, surfers David Rastovich and Vaya Phrachanh who took part in a protest against dolphin hunting drive in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan.^[11] The group paddled out on surfboards to the dolphins to attempt to stop the hunt, but they were forced to turn around after being intercepted by one of the fishing boats. They drove straight to Osaka airport and left the country to avoid being arrested for trespassing by the Japanese police. There is still an outstanding arrest warrant for Lucas in Japan.^[5] Many Japanese consider this kind of act as an attack on their culture.^[12] In a news interview, Lucas stated that this was for purely economic reasons, claiming polls show that 70% of Japanese oppose whaling. Taiji's fishery cooperative union argues that these protesters "continue willfully to distort the facts about this fishery" and that the protesters' agendas are "based neither on international law nor on science but rather on emotion for economic self-interest".^[13]

Lucas is a spokesperson for the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation^[14] and supports many organisations, including World Vision,^[15] The Humour Foundation,^[16] Women Against Violence,^{[17][citation needed]} Oxfam Community Aid Abroad,^[18] Global Green Plan,^[19] Save the Whales Again^[20] and Sea Shepherd.^[21]

In 2010, Lucas and the Summit on the Summit team climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness about the global clean water crisis.^[22]

Lucas, a vegetarian,^[23] was nominated as one of Australia's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities on PETAAsiaPacific.com for 2010.^[24]

Filmography [edit]

Lucas at the Paris Hilton: Marquee The Star Sydney, 30 March 2012

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Isabel Lucas

• Isabel Lucas at the Internet Movie Database