One of those British imports that everyone knows but whose names escapes the memory. With roles starring opposite more renowned actors such as Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and Scott Baio, its easy to see why her talent may have been overlooked but her beauty was acknowledged.

Vanessa Angel was boron on November 10th 1966 she was a pupil at Heathfield High school for girls in Harrow, London. Until she was spotted by a talent scout while out shopping with her mother in London, Vanessa had no aspirations of becoming an actress or a model but her career began at age 16 as a model when she was enrolled in the world renown Eileen Ford model agency

But once Vanessa was imported to the shores of the USA from England she was in great demand for roles in both comedy and drama movies.

Angel’s transition from model to actress came when she was chosen to appear in her first movie role opposite Chevy Chase, Bob Hope, Frank Oz and Dan Aykroyd in the hilarious comedy Spies Like Us in 1985. Her appearance in the movie was mainly to add the love interest and feminine wiles to another wise male oriented cast. At this time in her career Angel has admitted she knew very little about acting and that she learned on the job. She went on to learn her craft at The Actors Studio in New York.

After having been offered the role of Xena, Warrior Princess, in Hercules, The Legendary Journeys, Angel famously dropped out of the role which was originally intended to be a three episode guest appearance which went on to be a spin off series, Xena. The role eventually went to Lucy Lawless, and the series became one of the biggest television successes of the mid-1990s and was the acting role that turned Lawless into a star.

Along with her acting roles came the usual paparazzi exposure which led to her gracing the covers of both Vogue and Cosmopolitan magazines.

In 1998 Angel landed a part in Kissing a Fool a romantic comedy with David Schwimmer and Jason Lee. There's Something About Mary was the comedy movie of 1999 that saw Angel with a star studded cast of Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller and Chris Elliott. Her acting roles in 2004 included portraying Scott Baio’s wife in Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 along with Angelina Jolie’s father, Jon Voight.

Angel had a starring role on Stargate SG-1, in which she plays the Tok'ra archaeologist scientist Freya, whose symbiote is named Anise. Her first appearance is in the Season 4 episode "Upgrades", and she appears in the two following episodes "Crossroads" and "Divide and Conquer".

In the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, Entourage which chronicles the rise of a young A-list movie star, Angel played herself in an episode of season 2 which also starred Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson.

Later, Angel went on to star in the series, Angel Quest.

In addition to her work on film, Angel has guest starred on several television series including, 'Melrose Place, ' on which she played the recurring role of a bisexual model and starred with Melrose Place regulars, Heather Locklear and Marcia Cross.

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