Vanessa has worked in theatre, film, and television as a Puppeteer, Choreographer, Designer, and fabricator specialising in Puppet design.

With a passion for visual theatre storytelling, Vanessa segued from dance to puppetry in 1998 and has been devising, constructing, and performing puppetry for the last 25 years. Her independent work draws inspiration from mythology and folklore and combines dance, puppetry, and visual-based storytelling.

Designing and building in soft sculptural forms, tactile materials, and handbuilt elements inform and influence her design style. Over the years, she has shifted into creating with earth-friendlier materials and, where possible, upcycling, hand-dying, and felting fibers.

Vanessa has been fortunate to work with many companies and directors who incorporate puppetry. This relationship has taken her to many festivals and events worldwide, where she has performed with puppets from the miniature to the large and very large. Puppetry styles include Rod, Tabletop, Shadow, Glove, Marionette, Animatronic film and arena, festival roving, and body puppets.

Credits include 7 years with Aime, designing and fabricating over 50 puppets for internal staff and performers worldwide, a two-year stint as a Voodoo animatronics puppeteer on The Arena Spectacular of Walking with Dinosaurs, Puppeteer, and maker for A Blank Canvas, Puppet designer and fabricator for award-winning series “No Stings attached” Green Bean Pictures, Puppeteer and maker Victorian Opera and Opera Australia, Full-time position within the skins department with The Creature Technology Company, Various touring productions as a puppeteer and maker for both Windmill Performing Arts and Patch Theatre Company in Adelaide, Puppeteer for Terrapin, Maker, performer, and workshop assisting for Polyglot, Puppeteer for Black Hole theatre, construction of costumes and floats for The Moomba Parade over many years, Puppeteer for Puppet Vision’s performance of Tadepole. In 2006, she assisted the puppetry director, Peter Wilson, in the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. In 2006. Vanessa participated in a 9-week Master class with French directors Philippe Genty and Mary Underwood; this culminated in a public season.