Vanessa Lynn Branch (born March 21, 1973) is an English-born American actress and model. She is best known in the United States as the
Orbit Gum girl for its series of television commercials (her catchphrase is "Fabulous!").
Early life
Branch holds her
dual citizenship
Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on ...
in the United Kingdom and the United States. She also speaks fluent
French and
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
.
After graduating from
Mercersburg Academy
Mercersburg Academy (formerly Marshall College and Mercersburg College) is an independent selective college-preparatory boarding & day high school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. Founded in 1893, the school enrolls approximat ...
, a boarding school located in
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
Mercersburg is a borough in Franklin County, located near the southern border of Pennsylvania, United States. The borough is southwest of Harrisburg, the state capital.
Due to its location in a rural area, it had a relatively large percentage ...
, she graduated from
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
in 1994 with a double major in French and Theatre. Branch won the crown as
Miss Vermont
The Miss Vermont competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Vermont in the Miss America pageant. While Vermont is the only state to have never had a contestant advance to the semi-finals of the Miss America pagea ...
1994 and competed in the
Miss America 1995 pageant. After graduating college she modeled internationally, working for such magazines as Elle and Harpers Bazaar. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of acting. She is best known for the long running Orbit gum campaign, where she played their quirky British spokesperson for 8 years and appeared in 45 Orbit ads, as well as her role in the first 3 Pirates of the Caribbean films. She has also played leading roles in numerous Chinese films in Mandarin Chinese. She has one child, a boy named Jack, born October 11, 2016.
Filmography
References
External links
*
1973 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
20th-century English people
20th-century English women
21st-century American actresses
21st-century English people
21st-century English women
Actresses from London
American film producers
American television actresses
American video game actresses
American women film producers
British emigrants to the United States
English film producers
English television actresses
English video game actresses
Middlebury College alumni
Miss America 1995 delegates
Beauty pageant contestants from Vermont
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