About

Brisbane/Meanjin-born, currently based in London, UK, moving between projects across the UK and Australia. Vanessa is a Costume Designer who works on projects nationally and internationally. She is drawn to drama, but has experience working in comedic narratives as well. As a a first generation Chinese-Australian, Vanessa is deeply invested in broadening her understanding of, and ability to work within narratives that explore the intersections between identity, race, gender and sexuality particularly BIPOC, Queer, and marginalised identities. She sees costume design as a collaborative process that brings life, colour and texture into the characters and narrative of a script, from the page to screen.

Current project: Vanessa is costume designing Northern Pictures’ AUSTIN series for ABC TV Australia and ITV UK, (Dir: Darren Ashton and Madeline Dyer, starring Ben Miller, Sally Phillips, Gia Carides and Micheal Theo).

Vanessa has recently designed costumes for Dark Castle Entertainment USA’s copro with Met Films UK feature film LAST BREATH, (Dir: Alex Parkinson, starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, and Finn Cole), Hoodlum Entertainment IN OUR BLOOD, ABC TV (Dir: John Sheedy and Nicholas Verso, starring Tim Draxil, Matt Day, Jada Alberts and Anna McGann), Goalpost Pictures BLACK SNOW, Sundance Now & AMC+ US/Stan Australia (Dir: Sian Davies and Matthew Saville, starring Travis Fimmel, Rob Carlton, Kim Gyngell, Brooke Satchwell), Netflix Worldwide Rom Com A PERFECT PAIRING (Dir: Stuart McDonald, starring Victoria Justice and Adam Demos), 5-part digital series ALL MY FRIENDS ARE RACIST, ABC TV, Aquarius Film THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS, Acorn TV/SBS Australia (Dir: Natalie Bailey and Melvin Montablan, starring Miranda Otto, Peter O’Brien, Aina Dumloa, Heather Mitchell, Toby Leonard Moore and Michelle Vergara Moore), Ivan Sen’s neo noir EXPIRED (Dir: Ivan Sen, starring Hugo Weaving, Ryan Kwanten and Jill Nguyen), Every Cloud’s SEACHANGE, Acorn TV / Channel 9 Australia (Dir: Wayne Blair, Corrie Chen, Kevin Carlin and Peter Templeman, starring Sigrid Thornton), STREAMLINE (Dir: Tyson Wade Johnston, starring Levi Miller and Jason Issacs), and Chris Lilley’s LUNATICS, Netflix Worldwide.

Other credits include costume design for the critically acclaimed SAFE HARBOUR, HULU/BBC UK/ SBS Australia (Dir: Glendyn Ivin, starring Phoebe Tonkin, Ewen Leslie, Jacqueline McKenzie & Joel Jackson), THE SECOND, Stan Australia (Dir: Mairi Cameron, starring Rachael Blake, Suzie Porter & Vince Colosimo), AUSTRALIA DAY, Foxtel with Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning production company Hoodlum Entertainment (Dir: Kriv Stenders, starring Bryan Brown, Isabelle Cornish and Mathew Le Nevez), JUNGLE (Dir: Greg McLean, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Alex Russell and Joel Jackson), GOLDSTONE (Ivan Sen's sequel to 'Mystery Road', starring Jacki Weaver, David Wenham, David Gulpilil and Cheng Pei Pei) and WANTED, Channel 7 Australia with Matchbox Pictures (starring Rebecca Gibney and Geraldine Hakewill).

Vanessa has also worked on a range of productions in other capacities including roles working with Oscar winner, Angus Strathie as Assistant Costume Designer on MY MISTRESS (Dir: Stephen Lance, starring Emmanuelle Beart and Harrison Gilbertson) and multi-award winning Costume Designer Marion Boyce as Assistant Costume Designer on THE STARTER WIFE US (Dir: Jon Avnet, starring Debra Messing and Judy Davis). Vanessa received an Emmy nomination with Boyce for The Starter Wife in the category of Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special. She worked again with Boyce as Costume Buyer for THE DRESSMAKER (Dir: Joselyn Moorhouse, starring Kate Winslet, Judy Davis and Liam Hemsworth).

Vanessa is a proud member of the Australian Production Designers Guild and most recently was nominated at the 2022 awards for: ‘Costume Design for a Television Production Award’ for The Unusual Suspects and ‘Australian Costume Design for a Web Series Award’ for her work on All My Friends Are Racist.