Mind Gem
Born in Melbourne, Australia, on May 11, 1983, Holly Rachel Valance (born Vukadinovic) is the daughter of Rachel and Ryko Vukadinovic. Mr Vukadinovic is a well-known Serbian musician. When Holly was 12-years-old, she wanted to get a part-time job at McDonalds to earn money to buy clothes. Since she had to be 14 to work there, she turned instead to modeling. Both of her parents had worked as fashion models so they were supportive of Holly.
Holly quickly found success as a model, earning an impressive amount of work in her first year and working under the stage name Valance. By 1999, she was looking to branch out into acting and won a three-year contract for the role of Felicity “Flick” Scully on the popular Australian soap opera Neighbours. This was the beginning of a career that would soon encompass not only modeling and acting but singing as well. Holly would excel at all three!Holly spent almost four years on Neighbours before deciding it was time to move on. Her next move turned out to be recording music and she scored her first hit single in the spring of 2002, a cover version Turkish singer Tarkan’s “Kiss Kiss”. The song debuted at #1 on both the Australian and United Kingdom music charts. She released Footprints, her first full length album, in October of the same year.
The album was certified gold in both Australia and the UK and sold well in other territories as well. Down Boy, the second single from the album, ranked 3 in Australia and 2 in Great Britain while the third and last single from the album, Naughty Girl, topped out at 4 and 16 in Australia and the UK respectively. The following year she released State of Mind, her second album, as well as a single of the same name that made the Top 20 in both Australia and the United Kingdom.
In 2006, Holly put her kickboxing skills to use in the film DOA: Dead or Alive, based on a popular video game. She co-starred with Sarah Carter, Jaime Pressly and Devon Aoki in the film. From there she would move on to films such as National Lampoon’s Pledge This!starring Paris Hilton and Paula Garces and Takenstarring Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace. Some other films that feature Holly include Big Mamma’s Boy and Surviving Georgia. In addition to her acting career, Holly has continued to model including a campaign for Foster’s Gold beer in July 2011 that involved the Aussie beauty being painted head to toe in gold body paint! With her fans clamoring for more, we will surely see Holly in more movies, in more ad campaigns and maybe returning to the studio to record more music. Holly’s star continues to rise and the sky is the limit for this amazing woman!
