Esta TerBlanche
Encyclopedia
Esta TerBlanche is a South Africa
n actress of Huguenot descent
, best known for her roles on television soap opera
s in both South Africa and the United States
.
from 1992 to 1995.
In 1995, TerBlanche decided not to renew her contract with Egoli and, instead, opted to further her acting career in the U.S.
Within three weeks of arriving in the Los Angeles, she found her first job, acting in a hair products commercial. In 1997, TerBlanche was cast in the role of Gillian Andrassy on the American daytime drama All My Children
. Gillian, a troublemaking princess, was killed off in 2001 as TerBlanche asked to be written out of the show to move back to South Africa.
TerBlanche made a guest appearance on Egoli: Place of Gold
in 2004. She also made additional appearances on South African TV and in movies but later returned to the United States.
In 2010, she was interviewed by the American magazine Soap Opera Digest
. She reported then that she had divorced and taken a break from acting. She stated that she had opened a spa, exploring her interest in the medical field and healing.
In the interview, TerBlanche also noted that she had begun acting again and had recently filmed a pilot in South Africa. She expressed interest in returning to All My Children or acting in another soap, citing her time on All My Children as the best of her life.
In 2011, she was briefly profiled in the People magazine tribute to All My Children.
In August 2011, it was announced that TerBlanche would reprise the role of Gillian during the final weeks of All My Childrens broadcast on American network television. TerBlanche made a guest appearance on the show on August 24, 2011.
Plays she has appeared in include: The Glass Menagerie
, Pygmalion
, Hear Ye, and Ten Times Worse on Friday. She also starred in the film, Three Thieves and a Wedding.
TerBlanche also worked as a TV presenter in South Africa for the environmental program 50/50 and the children's show, K-T.V.
TerBlanche is well known in South Africa and has appeared on the covers of many magazines. A native speaker of Afrikaans
, TerBlanche also speaks English
and German
fluently, and can speak French
, Italian
and Russian
with varying levels of fluency.
TerBlanche was married to André Kock in 1997; she has since divorced. She has been romantically linked to South African actor and director Neil Sandilands.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n actress of Huguenot descent
Huguenots in South Africa
A large number of people in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans population, thanks to sharing a similar religion to the Dutch colonists.-History:Even before the large...
, best known for her roles on television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s in both South Africa and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Career
TerBlanche was born in Rustenburg, North West Province. She was crowned Miss Teen South Africa in 1991, and subsequently played Bienkie Naudé Hartman on the South African drama Egoli: Place of GoldEgoli: Place of Gold
Egoli: Place of Gold is a long-running bilingual South African soap opera which first aired on M-Net on 6 April 1992. South African television's first daily soap opera, on 3 December 1999 Egoli became the first South African television program in any genre to reach 2,000 episodes. As of 3 August...
from 1992 to 1995.
In 1995, TerBlanche decided not to renew her contract with Egoli and, instead, opted to further her acting career in the U.S.
Within three weeks of arriving in the Los Angeles, she found her first job, acting in a hair products commercial. In 1997, TerBlanche was cast in the role of Gillian Andrassy on the American daytime drama All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. Gillian, a troublemaking princess, was killed off in 2001 as TerBlanche asked to be written out of the show to move back to South Africa.
TerBlanche made a guest appearance on Egoli: Place of Gold
Egoli: Place of Gold
Egoli: Place of Gold is a long-running bilingual South African soap opera which first aired on M-Net on 6 April 1992. South African television's first daily soap opera, on 3 December 1999 Egoli became the first South African television program in any genre to reach 2,000 episodes. As of 3 August...
in 2004. She also made additional appearances on South African TV and in movies but later returned to the United States.
In 2010, she was interviewed by the American magazine Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest
Soap Opera Digest is a weekly magazine covering American daytime soap operas. It features onscreen and offscreen news about the series, interviews with and articles about performers, storyline summaries and analysis, and related promotional information...
. She reported then that she had divorced and taken a break from acting. She stated that she had opened a spa, exploring her interest in the medical field and healing.
In the interview, TerBlanche also noted that she had begun acting again and had recently filmed a pilot in South Africa. She expressed interest in returning to All My Children or acting in another soap, citing her time on All My Children as the best of her life.
In 2011, she was briefly profiled in the People magazine tribute to All My Children.
In August 2011, it was announced that TerBlanche would reprise the role of Gillian during the final weeks of All My Childrens broadcast on American network television. TerBlanche made a guest appearance on the show on August 24, 2011.
Plays she has appeared in include: The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie
The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
, Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
, Hear Ye, and Ten Times Worse on Friday. She also starred in the film, Three Thieves and a Wedding.
TerBlanche also worked as a TV presenter in South Africa for the environmental program 50/50 and the children's show, K-T.V.
TerBlanche is well known in South Africa and has appeared on the covers of many magazines. A native speaker of Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, TerBlanche also speaks English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
fluently, and can speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
with varying levels of fluency.
Personal life
As a child, TerBlanche grew up on a game farm in South Africa, replete with monkeys, cows, horses, sheep, warthogs, and elams.TerBlanche was married to André Kock in 1997; she has since divorced. She has been romantically linked to South African actor and director Neil Sandilands.