Even if you’ve been watching her as Mazikeen on Lucifer for the past four seasons, you probably do not know everything about Lesley-Ann Brandt.
For instance, did you know that she is from South Africa? Or that she spends her free time working with different charities?
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Curious to learn more? Here are 10+ facts about Lesley-Ann that fans didn’t know
1. She was born in Cape Town, South Africa:
She even paid homage to her country by choosing to have the demon language on Lucifer be Afrikaans.
“It’s the only other language I know how to speak so I just thought it would be cool to bring in my culture and a bit of home in it,” she told Cosmopolitan South Africa .
She continued by saying how her upbringing influenced the character.
“Our South African women especially the Cape Town girls we are raised tough, ‘ons vat nie kak nie’, but I think what’s cool about the character and what’s great about where women are at now is it’s okay for us to act feminine and masculine.”
2. She lived in New Zealand and started her acting career there:
She relocated there from South Africa when she was 17 and found work on the soap opera Shortland Street .
From there, she had roles in Spartacus , Chuck , and Gotham . She was amazing in each and every role.
3. People often get her ethnicity wrong:
“I’m not considered black I’m colored –which isn’t sort of [just] a black and white mix,” she told New York Moves .
She’s a mix of heritages from East Indian, Dutch, German, and Spanish sources, but she ultimately self-identifies as a Cape colored.
4. She is trained in the Meisner Technique:
A lot of people confuse this with Method Acting, but it’s actually a style of acting created by Sanford Meisner .
It’s where the actor focuses on external sources for inspiration, such as other actors and their behavior.
5. Her nickname is ‘Appeltjie’:
It means “little apple” and it was given to her by her late grandfather.
When she married her husband, Chris Payne Gilbert, he gave her a pendant with the nickname engraved on it. So sweet!
6. She met her husband when they were assigned to a scene together:
This took place in 2012 at the Nancy Banks Acting Studio.
“It was an incredibly hot day in Los Angeles and I was laying down on the living room floor nursing a beer,” she told Brides .
“Chris walked in and looked at me and say he thought, ‘Who is this crazy chick drinking before our rehearsal?'”
“We talked for the next two hours and laughed a lot, and then at our next rehearsal we kissed.”
They got married in 2015 and welcomed a son, Kingston Payne, soon after.
7. She’s actively involved in different charities, and makes sure to shed light on them on her Instagram account.
This is one sweet soul.
Thanks to her yoga background, the actress partnered with the Earthchild Project to implement a yoga program into disadvantaged schools.
8. She’s also done work with Saving the Survivors, which helps injured and poached animals.
“The most incredible day. Today I travelled to meet with Johan from @savingthesurvivors Johan is a vet committed to protecting our African wildlife by offering free and low cost services to injured and poached animals.” she wrote on Instagram.
“Harvey is a beautiful bull who was poached almost a year ago and has had a hard time healing. We cleaned his wound and covered it to give him the chance to heal without the Ox peckers, (birds), getting in there.”
“This was also a recon trip to figure how I can be of service and lend my voice and platform to ensuring the beautiful animals of my country are able to thrive in their natural habitat. Excited to share what I come up with in the next few months. As you can see in the last pic, Harvey is officially protected by Maze. Stay tuned and thank you Johan and your team for all you do.
9. She loves to binge TV:
She told Metro that she’s been binging Dirty Money on Netflix. She also loves to watch Friends whenever she has the time (caring for a toddler is a lot of work).
Also, the last show that made her cry was Fleabag .
10. She’s worked some odd jobs:
Before she broke into acting, she dabbled in a string of odd jobs to get by.
This included working in IT, sales and marketing, and even freelance makeup. Hey, we all have to start somewhere.
11. She was a freelance make-up artist for Bobby Brown Cosmetics!
She also did some commercials and print modeling on the side.
This is actually how she got into acting since a casting director told her to consider moving up in the entertainment industry.
12. She’s a yogi:
She’s been practicing for 10 years and has even been teaching her son some moves.
“I show him different yoga poses, and I’ve started teaching him to sit and breathe on a mat. It’s the cutest thing.”
13. She can sing:
She once said that if she wasn’t acting, she would want to be a singer.
“My family is very musical. I sang at my first holy communion, and did a lot of plays in school.”
“You’ll see me singing along to ballads at the stoplights in my car.”
Since she is learning how to play guitar, her goal is to combine the two talents eventually.
We would definitely love to hear that!
14. She loves playing a demon on *Lucifer*:
You would think that it would be difficult to connect with a demon, but Lesley-Ann does it well.
She told BriefTake that she even draws on her experiences as an immigrant to help shape Mazikeen.
“It took me a good couple of years to make New Zealand feel like home, I was almost 18, it was a tough age to emigrate and to leave all your friends behind,” she said.
She continued:
“You know, very much like Mazikeen in that first season, in which she was like “No one gets me, no one understands me.”
