Vendela Kirsebom
Encyclopedia
Vendela Maria Kirsebom (born January 12, 1967) is a Norwegian
Norwegians
Norwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...

-Swedish model and actress living in Nesodden
Nesodden
Nesodden is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Follo. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Nesoddtangen. The parish of Næsodden was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

Early life and career

Vendela Kirsebom was born in Stockholm, Sweden to a Norwegian mother; her Swedish father was of Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

 descent. At age 13, Kirsebom was discovered in a Stockholm restaurant by Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford is a model agency executive and co-founder, in 1946, with her late husband Gerard William "Jerry" Ford, of Ford Models, one of the earliest and internationally best known modelling agencies in the world.-Early life:...

 herself. At 18, she graduated from the Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...

 School and moved to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 to pursue a modeling career under the guidance of the famous Ford Models
Ford Models
The Ford Modeling Agency, or as it is known today Ford Models, is a modeling agency in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen and the late Gerard W. Ford.-Company:...

. Contracted with Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden
Florence Nightingale Graham , who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. At the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.-Biography:Arden was born in 1884 at Woodbridge, Ontario,...

, she moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to work as Almay
Almay
Almay is a cosmetics brand owned by Revlon, along with other brands including Revlon, Ultima II, ColorStay, Flex, New Complexion, Revlon Age Defying, and Charlie.- History :...

's spokesperson. She has represented Elizabeth Arden
Elizabeth Arden
Florence Nightingale Graham , who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-American businesswoman who built a cosmetics empire in the United States. At the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.-Biography:Arden was born in 1884 at Woodbridge, Ontario,...

, Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...

 Lasting fragrance, Lay's
Lay's
Lay's is the brand name for a number of potato chip varieties as well as the name of the company that founded the chip brand in 1932. Lay's chips has been marketed as a division of Frito-Lay, a company owned by PepsiCo since 1965...

, Barbour, Diesel, Hanes
Hanes
Hanes and Hanes Her Way are brands of apparel currently owned by the HanesBrands, Inc Corporation...

, JH Collectibles, Lipton
Lipton
Lipton is a brand of tea currently owned by Unilever.-History of Lipton Tea:Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by a grocer, Sir Thomas Lipton, in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1893, he established the Thomas J. Lipton Co., a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hobo ken,...

, Mikimoto, and Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006...

. Her model agencies are Mikas in Sweden and Cathy Quinn Models, INC in the U.S.

Magazine cover, film and television appearances

She has appeared on the magazine covers of Bride's (US), Flare (Canada)
Flare (magazine)
Flare is a Canadian fashion magazine. It is owned by Rogers Communications.Flare magazine was created in 1979, as a rebranding of Miss Chatelaine magazine. Flare promotes itself as "Canada's Fashion magazine"...

, Shape (US), FHM (UK)
FHM
FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...

, and Zest (US) and has been featured multiple times in the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....

.

She appeared in Batman and Robin in 1997 and The Parent Trap
The Parent Trap (1998 film)
The Parent Trap is a remake of the 1961 family film of the same name. It was directed and co-written by Nancy Meyers, and produced and co-written by Charles Shyer. It stars Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson as a couple who divorce soon after marrying, and Lindsay Lohan in a dual role as their...

, alongside Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11...

 and Dennis Quaid
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid is an American actor known for his comedic and dramatic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the 1980s, his career rebounded in the 1990s after he overcame an addiction to drugs and an eating disorder...

, in 1998. She was also featured in the Disney Channel
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...

's Model Behavior
Model Behavior
Model Behavior is a 2000 television movie that aired on The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC. The film starred Maggie Lawson and was directed by Mark Rosman. The film also stars Justin Timberlake and co-stars Kathie Lee Gifford...

with Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...

 and Maggie Lawson
Maggie Lawson
Margaret "Maggie" Lawson is an American actress who is best known for her role as Juliet O'Hara in the TV show Psych...

. She appeared as herself in 1995 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

and Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...

, as well as the 2005 TV-movie sequel Romy and Michele: In the Beginning
Romy and Michele: In the Beginning
Romy and Michele: In the Beginning is a 2005 TV film starring Katherine Heigl as Romy and Alex Breckenridge as Michele, with a special appearance by Paula Abdul. It is a prequel to the 1997 feature Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. The TV film was critically panned and suffered low viewership...

. She also lent her voice to a character on Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...

. In 1999, she hosted the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen 1999
Melodifestivalen 1999
Melodifestivalen 1999 was the selection for the 39th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 38th time that this system of picking a song had been used. 1315 songs were submitted to SVT for the competition. The final was broadcast on SVT2 and Sveriges Radio's P4 network...

. She currently hosts the 2nd cycle of Norway's Next Top Model
Norway's Next Top Model
Norway's Next Top Model is a Norwegian reality television show based on the original American version, airing on TV3. The first cycle aired in 2006, after part years of participating in Scandinavia's Next Top Model along with Sweden and Denmark...

and the 4th cycle of Sweden's Next Top Supermodel. Additionally, she appeared in a 10th-season episode of America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....

, judging the posing challenge with instructor Benny Ninja
Benny Ninja
Benny Ninja is a self-taught Vogue-style dancer from the underground clubs based in Westchester, New York. He is best known for his involvement in ball culture...

.

Personal life

In 1996, she married Norwegian politician Olaf Thommessen
Olaf Thommessen
Olaf Henning Thommessen is a Norwegian businessman and politician for the Liberal Party.Olaf Thommessen is a Roman Catholic of French and Norwegian descent. His mother was Anette Thommessen , a French national. Annette got her Norwegian surname when she was married to Henrik Peter Thommessen from...

, a Roman Catholic of French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 and Norwegian descent. They separated in 2007 after 11 years of marriage and Vendela moved to Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 with their two daughters, Julia and Hannah. In addition to Swedish and Norwegian, she speaks 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....

, 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 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...

 fluently. Kirsebom still is a very active figure in the international model community, and also acts as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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