Vanessa Branch Biography

Vanessa Lynn Branch (born 21 March 1973) is an English American actress and model. She is best known in North America as the Orbit Gum television commercial woman (whose catchphrase is "Fabulous!").

Life

Branch holds dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and the United States. She also speaks some French and Mandarin Chinese.

After graduating from Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in south-central Pennsylvania, she graduated from Middlebury College in 1994 and was Miss Vermont also that year. In 1996, she began tutoring two young girls, Blair and Ana Van Pelt, in French, and later moved in with the Van Pelt family in Newport Beach, California. She has stayed in southern California since then and currently resides there.

Career

She appeared in the Lost episode "Fire + Water" as the character Karen. She also made an appearance on Gilmore Girls. She can also be seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, playing Giselle, a Tortugan wench jilted by Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow. She had a guest appearance as Nadia Kerensky in the pilot of the short-lived TV series Andy Barker P.I.. She also appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Shattered" as an adult Naomi Wildman.

In 2002, Vanessa appeared on the American soap Port Charles as Mary Margaret 'Paige' Barrington Smith and Rebecca 'Becca' Barrington.

In June 2006, Vanessa worked on an advertisement for Orbit Gum that introduced two new flavors, lemon-lime and crystal mint. She worked on advertisements with the company until 2010. She was replaced by the current Orbit Gum Girl, actress Farris Patton.

In July 2006, Maxim featured her in their "Girls of Maxim" gallery.

She plays the role of Zhana Agonskaya in the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

In 2010, she voiced the character of Beatrice Portinari in the video game Dante's Inferno and also starred in Sonny With a Chance on the Disney Channel.

In 2011, she starred as Claire in the SyFy original movie 51, which premièred in late February.