A South African-born actress (of Cape Coloured descent) who is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and Los Angeles, United States.
She speaks English and Afrikaans.
You’re probably still asking what makes a “Colored”, “Colored”. Well like the name suggests, it is someone of many colors. My heritage consists of German, ( my last name), Indian, British and Spanish. My mother has the Indian, but is very fair and could be mistaken for white if you’ve never met her or you’re not from South Africa.
Her father however was a very dark man with Indian heritage. Her mother had an olive complexion. My father on the other hand has mostly European heritage, (a white German grandfather on his fathers side and a white British Grandfather and Spanish grandmother on his mothers side), but looks much darker than me. On my dad’s side, my grandfather had really dark olive coloring with green eyes and my grandmother was often mistaken as white during Apartheid.
She would often sneak into white only grocery stores to buy food because no one really questioned her.
Brandt has acted in a number of New Zealand television series and first came to international notice with her role as a slave girl Naevia in the series Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
In Thailand, I’m mistaken as Thai, in New Zealand I’ve been told I look Polynesian,
Indians can see my Indian heritage and in America, I’ve been told I look African American or Latin American. I like it that way.
~Lesley-Ann Brandt
In The Librarians Brandt will play Lamia, a skilled assassin for an evil organisation called the Serpent Brotherhood.
She is described as “equal parts alluring and lethal, and enjoys making her kills personal”.
Brandt performs all her own stunts in the series, and says her training during “Gladiator camp” during the filming of Spartacus really helped her.
In 2015 she won the role of Maze in the upcoming FOX television series Lucifer.
She also appeared on the hit series Gotham as Larissa Diaz/Copperhead.
A bold, quirky and politically incorrect comedy that follows the misadventures at the consulate of The Most Royal Kingdom of Feausi and the fallen New Zealand Foreign Affairs high-flier whos been sent in to straighten out the consulate staff. Starring David Fane (Outrageous Fortune, brotown, Siones Wedding) and Craig Parker (Lord of the Rings, Mercy Peak, Shortland Street) and written by James Griffin (Outrageous Fortune, Siones Wedding, Serial Killers, Spin Doctors). Also starring: Lesley-Ann Brandt, John Leigh, Mario Gaoa, Kayte Ferguson and Hannah Marshall.