Isabel Lucas

Biography:  Isabel Lucas is an Australian actress of Swiss descent, perhaps best known for her role as Tasha Andrews on popular Australian television soap opera Home and Away until 2006 and for her active role in various environmental awareness organisations including Greenpeace International. Lucas moved to Los Angeles in early 2008. Lucas' current projects include Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Rights Revoked (2009), a documentary shot with friend and actress Elissa Sursara for Animal Planet. Contents Early life and family As a child, Lucas lived in Cairns, in Far North Queensland. She has a Swiss mother and an Australian father, and speaks French and German in addition to her native English. Lucas went to a high school named St. Monicas in Cairns, Australia. Career Television Lucas enrolled with the Victorian College of Arts but had never pursued commercial roles until she was spotted at the Port Douglas market by Sharron Meissner, a Sydney theatrical agent. She auditioned for the role of Kit Hunter in Home and Away (now played by Amy Mizzi); while the producer of the show, Julie McGauran, felt that role was not right for Isabel, she was sufficiently impressed to have a new character, Tasha Andrews, created for her. Lucas won a Logie Award (for new popular talent) for her performance on the program. Playing Tasha Andrews on Home and Away was Lucas' first television role. She also appeared in an American television commercial for Crest toothpaste. Film Lucas is currently filming her debut role in a film in the upcoming vampire thriller Daybreakers which is set for release in 2009, which stars Ethan Hawke.. Lucas has been cast as Gwen in the Steven Spielberg World War II miniseries, The Pacific. She has also been cast in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as Alice. In a recent article, Lucas refused to speculate on her latest casting. Reports have suggested that although assigned to the William Morris Talent Agency in LA through the auspices of Meissner Management, Lucas obtained the role of Alice in her native Australia before moving permanently to America. It has been claimed that Lucas was hand picked by Steven Spielberg; however, Michael Bay, Director and producer of Transformers , has denied that Spielberg influenced the decision to cast her.  It has emerged that between February and May 2008 Lucas worked on Adrian Grenier's new series, Alter Eco. Public image In October 2007, Isabel Lucas was part of a group of 30 people from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (including American actress Hayden Panettiere) who took part in a protest against whaling in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. The group paddled out on surfboards to the whales to attempt to stop the hunt, but they were forced to turn around after being intercepted by one of the fishing boats. They drove straight to Osaka airport and left the country to avoid being arrested for trespassing by the Japanese police. Many Japanese consider this kind of act as an attack on their culture. Taiji's fishery cooperative union argues that these protesters "continue wilfully to distort the facts about this fishery" and protester's agendas are " based neither on international law nor on science but rather on emotion for economic self-interest." Lucas is a spokesperson for the National Breast Cancer Foundation , and supports and is an ambassador to many organisations including:     * World Vision     * The Humour Foundation     * Women Against Violence     * Seeing Eye Dogs Australia     * Oxfam Community Aid Abroad     * Global Green Plan     * Save the Whales Again Isabel Lucas most notably dated American actor Adrian Grenier. However, she was also the passenger in Shia LaBeouf's car when the Transformers actor crashed on 27 July 2008. He was alledgedly drinking before the accident, and escaped with an injury to his hand, while Lucas received only a minor head injury. The pair have been dating since they began working on Transformers.