Holly Valance

Holly Rachel Candy (Vukadinović; born 11 May 1983), known professionally as Holly Valance, is an Australian model, actress and singer.

Holly Valance was born on 11 May 1983, as Holly Rachel Vukadinović, in Fitzroy, Victoria to a Serbian father, Rajko Vukadinović, and a British mother, Rachel (née Stephens), of English and Spanish descent.

Her father was a former pianist and model in his native Belgrade, Serbia, former Yugoslavia.

Her mother, whose father was a relative of Benny Hill, was a model in the United Kingdom.

Valance's parents divorced in 1986.

Valance has a sister, Coco.

She is best known for her roles as Felicity Scully on the Australian soap opera Neighbours (1999–2002) and Nika Volek in Prison Break (2005–2006).

In 1999 at age 16, Valance was cast in the Australian TV soap opera, Neighbours, as Felicity "Flick" Scully.

Soon after gaining the role she left her Catholic school, "where girls were given detention for wearing make-up or having a hem above the knee."

She appeared in Human Nature's music video for "He Don't Love You" (November 2000), "in a raunchy shower scene."

She released her first album, Footprints (2002), which provided three top 3 singles: "Kiss Kiss", "Down Boy" and "Naughty Girl".

Valance left Neighbours in 2002 to start her music career.

Her first single, released in April 2002, was "Kiss Kiss", an English language cover version of Turkish singer, Tarkan's "Şımarık".

It entered both the ARIA Singles and UK Singles Charts at No. 1. It charted in the top ten in seventeen countries.

The song was nominated for four ARIA Music Awards in 2002.

Valance's second single, "Down Boy" (September), peaked at No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in Australia.

Her first album, Footprints, was released on 14 October 2002, which reached No. 9 in the UK and No. 15 in Australia.

She co-wrote the album track, "The Harder They Come", with Rob Davis, who supplied guitar for the album.

The album's third and final single, "Naughty Girl" peaked at No. 3 in Australia and No. 16 in the UK.

Her second and final album, State of Mind (2003) provided the title-song as single.

Valance's second album, State of Mind, appeared in November 2003 and its title track, was the lead single.

It peaked at No. 8 in the UK and at No. 14 in Australia.

Valance dropped London Recordings in 2004 and said she is no longer interested in recording music.

In 2004, Valance returned to acting, this time in the United States, appearing in episodes of the television series CSI: Miami and Entourage.

In 2005, she appeared in an episode of CSI: NY.

In 2005 Valance returned to music, albeit briefly, when she appeared on Har Mar Superstar's album The Handler singing on the tracks, "DUI", "Back the Camel Up" and "Body Request".

Her film roles include, DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), Pledge This! (2006), Taken (2008), Kambakkht Ishq (2009), and Big Mamma's Boy (2011) and Red Herring (2015).

She appeared in Prison Break in 2006 as Nika Volek, a role which she continued to portray in the show's second season.

Also in 2006, Valance appeared in the National Lampoon comedy Pledge This!, alongside American socialite Paris Hilton.

The same year, she starred in DOA: Dead or Alive, an adaptation of the popular video game Dead or Alive, in which she played Christie.

In 2007, she appeared in the TV series Shark and Moonlight.

In 2008 she had a role in the film Taken alongside Liam Neeson, and appeared in an episode of The CW series Valentine.

In 2009, she appeared in Frankmusik's video for his single "Confusion Girl".

She also leaked a track called "Superstar" in 2009.

In 2009 Valance played Brenda Snow for the video game Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising.

Rajko later remarried and Holly has a half-sister, Olympia, who has also acted in Neighbours as Paige Smith (2014–2018, 2020, 2022).

In Melbourne Rajko ran a "trendy imported European clothes store".

She started modelling as a teenager, when "she posed for supermarket catalogues and ad campaigns and by 14 she was earning $200 an hour modelling children's clothes and teenage lingerie."

Valance grew up in Melbourne and moved to the UK when she was 18; she holds both Australian and British citizenship.

After two years she moved to Los Angeles, where she spent seven years before returning to the United Kingdom.