Jessica Tovey

Jessica Tovey
Born (1987-11-10) 10 November 1987
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationActress
Years active2004–present
Children1
Parent(s)Libby Gleeson
Euan Tovey

Jessica Tovey (born 10 November 1987) is an Australian actress. Tovey graduated from the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and has made appearances for various drama companies. She is best known for her role of Belle Taylor on the long-running Australian soap opera Home and Away. Tovey joined the show in 2006 and was nominated for two Logie Awards during her time there. In 2009, she announced she had quit Home and Away and her character was killed off. Tovey became the face of American shoe company, Skechers. She appeared in Underbelly: The Golden Mile in 2010 and Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo in 2011. Tovey had a recurring role in the Wolf Creek in 2016, followed by a lead role in the 2019 miniseries Bad Mothers.

Early life

Tovey was born in Sydney on 10 November 1987.[1][2] Her mother is author Libby Gleeson and her father is Euan Tovey, a New Zealand research scientist.[3] She has two older sisters, Amelia and Josephine.[3] Her sister Josephine is a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald.[4] Tovey began acting when she was around six years old, appearing in various plays.[2] She graduated from the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where she appeared in a number of stage productions.[1][2]

Career

Tovey has played leading roles at Australian Theatre for Young People, drama festivals and in The Global Shakespeare Festival, where she won acclaim for her performance in Macbeth.[1] In 2005, she joined the cast of children's program Wicked Science as Nadine.[1]

In 2006, just as she was beginning her HSC, Tovey joined the main cast of Home and Away as Belle Taylor.[2][5] For her portrayal of the character, Tovey was nominated for Most Popular New Female Talent and Most Popular Actress at the 2007 and 2010 Logie Awards respectively.[6][7] In April 2009, Tovey announced that she had quit Home and Away and her character was killed off.[8][9]

In 2008, American shoe company, Skechers announced that Tovey would be their new celebrity face.[10] Tovey became the first non-American to feature in the brand's ad campaigns.[10] Tovey joined the cast of Underbelly: The Golden Mile in April 2010, appearing as Constable Wendy Jones.[11] In August, she joined the cast of Panic at Rock Island, a Nine Network telemovie drama.[12] Tovey also made a guest appearance on police drama Cops L.A.C..[13] She appeared in the 2011 ABC television miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo as Leslie Carpenter.[14] Tovey was cast as Dani Varvaris in the romantic-comedy drama Wonderland.[15]

On stage, Tovey appeared in the world premiere of Lachlan Philpott's play Truck Stop for Sydney's Q Theatre Company in 2012.[16] Further stage credits include Lola in a stage adaptation by Tom Holloway of Double Indemnity for the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2016,[17] a touring production of Constellations by Nick Payne for the Queensland Theatre Company in 2017,[18] and Portia in Bell Shakespeare's touring production of The Merchant of Venice the same year.[19]

From 2016, Tovey appeared in the Stan series Wolf Creek[20] She starred in the Nine Network miniseries Bad Mothers in 2019, alongside Jessica Marais, Mandy McElhinney, and Shalom Brune-Franklin.[21] In 2024, Tovey appeared in the Jennifer Van Gessel's horror film Water Horse.[22]

Personal life

Tovey has been in a relationship with actor Damien Strouthos since 2017. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter, in September 2021.[23]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Type
2007 Smile for Me Simone Short film
2010 Wanderlust Eva Short film
2010 Professor Kellog and the Colombian Bookshop Crack Adventure Katy Short film
2011 Reception Evelyn Short film
2012 Census Milly Short film
2013 Adoration Mary
2013 Tracks Jenny
2014 Lemon Tree Passage Maya
2019 Beast No More Mary Jane
2024 Water Horse Detective Suzanne Lee

Television

Year Title Role Type
2005 Wicked Science Nadine Sterling Episodes: "Ghost Girl", "Ring of Confidence"
2006–2009 Home and Away Belle Taylor Series regular
2009 Rescue: Special Ops Caitlin Kelly Episode: "Eco-warriors"
2010 Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story Laura Korp TV movie
2010 Underbelly: The Golden Mile Wendy Jones Recurring
2010 Cops L.A.C. Tash Episode: "Blood Types"
2011 Panic at Rock Island Nina Quinn TV movie
2011 Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo Leslie Carpenter Episodes: "Part One", "Part Two"
2012 Dance Academy Jess Recurring
2013 Mr & Mrs Murder Claire Rickard-Smith Episode: "A Flare for Murder"
2013–2015 Wonderland Dani Varvaris Main cast
2014–2015 Movie Juice Presenter
2016 Wolf Creek Kirsty Hill Recurring
2018 True Story with Hamish and Andy Lisa Episode: "Lisa"
2019 Bad Mothers Danielle Miniseries

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Cast – Jessica Tovey". RTÉ Television. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Rigden, Clare (25–31 March 2006). "Belle of the beach". TV Week. No. 13. p. 91. Yes, I turned 18 last November.
  3. ^ a b "Papers of Libby Gleeson (1950– )". National Library of Australia. July 1998. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  4. ^ "National News Headlines – Latest Australian Breaking News". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  5. ^ Bennett, Cath (5 April 2009). "Home when away". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 22 July 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  6. ^ "Logie Award nominations". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
  7. ^ "2010 Logie Awards: Full list of winners". Perth Now. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  8. ^ Rowe, Darren (17 August 2009). "Tovey reveals reason behind 'H&A' exit". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  9. ^ Rowe, Darren (11 May 2009). "Tovey films final 'Home and Away' scenes". Digital Spy. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
  10. ^ a b "Skechers' new face". The New Zealand Herald. 15 October 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  11. ^ McWhirter, Erin (2 April 2010). "Meet the women of Underbelly, The Golden Mile". The Advertiser. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  12. ^ Knox, David (9 August 2010). "Panic at Rock Island cast announced". TV Tonight. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  13. ^ Vickery, Colin (17 September 2010). "Honeymoon period over for Cops LAC after ratings dive". Herald Sun. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  14. ^ "Paper Giants: the story of Cleo". The Australian. 29 March 2011. Archived from the original on 20 April 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  15. ^ Nauman, Zoe (28 April 2013). "Brooke back as Wonder woman". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  16. ^ Matheson, Melissa Matheson (25 May 2012). "Truck Stop stars Eryn Jean Norvill, Jessica Tovey, Kristy Best and Elena Carapetis". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  17. ^ "Theatre review: Double Indemnity, Melbourne Theatre Company". Herald Sun. 6 June 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  18. ^ Clarke, Sonny (10 April 2017). "Constellations". AussieTheatre.com. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  19. ^ Blake, Elissa (11 July 2017). "Bell Shakespeare's new Merchant of Venice calls out casual racism". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  20. ^ "Trailer released for Stan's Wolf Creek series, all six episodes debut May 12". IF Magazine. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  21. ^ "Nine and Screen Australia announce new Jungle series Bad Mothers". Mediaweek. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  22. ^ "'Water Horse' (Trailer)". IF Magazine. 19 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  23. ^ Doyle, Erin (4 October 2021). "It's a girl! Home and Away star gives birth". New Idea. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
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