Isabel Lucas

Biography

Isabel Lucas (born 29 January 1985) is an Australian actress, environmentalist and model. She is best known for her roles in Home and Away (2003–06), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Daybreakers (2009), The Waiting City (2009), The Pacific (2010), Immortals (2011), A Heartbeat Away (2011), Red Dawn (2012), The Loft (2014), The Water Diviner (2014), Knight of Cups (2015), and That's Not Me (2017). In 2015, she acted beside Nick Jonas in the thriller film Careful What You Wish For. In 2017, Lucas joined the American television series MacGyver. In 2018, she appeared in In Like Flynn which was a success in Australia, New Zealand, and Britain, and the same year played Brooke in Chasing Comets. In 2009, Lucas won Best Breakout Performance Female at SPIKE TV's 2009 Scream Awards for her role in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In 2011 Lucas won a Young Hollywood Award for Female Star of Tomorrow. In 2012, Lucas starred in Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love" music video.

== Early life == Isabel Lucas was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 29 January 1985, and is the daughter of Andrew, a biodynamic farmer and retired pilot, and Beatrice, a special education teacher. Her father is Australian and her mother is Swiss. Her older sister works as an environmental lawyer. Lucas can speak French and Swiss-German in addition to English. As a child, Lucas lived in Cairns, Queensland. She also lived in Lucerne, Switzerland and Kakadu, in Australia's Northern Territory. Growing up on a farm, she has ridden horses since the age of 10 and competed in dressage and show jumping with her sister. Lucas attended St. Monica's College in Cairns.

== Career ==

=== 2003–2015: Home and Away and Hollywood === Lucas was involved in drama during her school years and attended courses at the Victorian College of Arts and Queensland University of Technology. In 2002, her now agent Sharron Meissner claimed to have discovered Lucas walking on the beach at Port Douglas. In fact, the meeting was arranged well before. Lucas auditioned for the role of Kit Hunter in Home and Away; although 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 just for her.

In 2007, she focused on saving dolphins in Japan, and in October of that year appeared on the Australian Today Show to discuss this topic. In 2008, Lucas moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career further. While working with Steven Spielberg on the World War II miniseries, The Pacific, he suggested Lucas for the role of Alice in the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, sequel to Transformers (2007), where Spielberg was serving as the series's executive producer. This later became the debut role of Lucas's career, earning her the award for Best Breakout Performance-Female in sci-fi and action at the 2009 Scream Awards. In a much later interview with Rove, Lucas described the audition process for the role as "very interesting" and drastically different from when she auditioned for other roles prior to Transformers. She also said that the filming process was a lot different from Home Away, where she would spend hours shooting various episodes all in one go. In 2008, Lucas was cast in the vampire science-fiction thriller film Daybreakers and in 2009, she was cast as the character Erica Martin in the remake of the 1984 film Red Dawn alongside fellow Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, which was ultimately released in November 2012. In 2009, Lucas played Scarlett in the romantic film The Waiting City.

In 2011, Lucas played the goddess Athena in the fantasy film Immortals, and signed on to appear in the film Knight of Cups, which was released in 2015. In November 2012, Lucas was featured as the main character in the music video for "Give Me Love" by British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. In March 2013, it was announced that Lucas would star in the thriller Careful What You Wish For, which was released in June 2016. In 2014, Lucas was featured in the documentary That Sugar Film directed by Damon Gameau, on the topic of the effect that sugar has on the human body, and the need to eat truly healthy foods.

=== 2016–present: MacGyver and return to Australian film === In 2017, Lucas appeared in the Australian comedy-drama film, That's Not Me, beside Alice Foulcher, Richard Davies, and Rowan Davie, which was released worldwide on 7 September the same year. From 2017 to 2018, Lucas played Samantha Cage in CBS's remake of the series MacGyver. Lucas left her role as Samantha Cage in June 2018. She began filming the Australian biographical-drama film In Like Flynn in February 2017, with British and Australian actors William Moseley, Clive Standen, Corey William Large, David Wenham and actress Nathalie Kelley. The film was released to Australia on 11 October 2018. It was later released worldwide in January 2019. In the same year, Lucas played Brooke in Chasing Comets, a biographical-drama comedy on the life of Chase, a famous Australian rugby league player. The same year, she played Kali Stewart in Shooting in Vain, a drama thriller starring Sebastian Gregory, Diana Hopper, and Colleen Kelly. Lucas appeared in the Australian drama-thriller Shooting in Vain, directed by Jared Januscka, which was released on worldwide in 2018. It stars Alexandra Park, Diana Hopper, and Sebastian Gregory. Later in 2018, she appeared in In Like Flynn as the character Rose. The film became a success in Australia, New Zealand, and Britain, rating as a 66–70% after its opening weekend. It was later released worldwide the following year on 25 January. In 2022, Lucas starred alongside Luke Hemsworth and Rasmus King in a drama-film, Bosch & Rockit (Ocean Boy). She later appeared as Katie in Sons of Summer, a crime-action film that was released on July 28, 2023.

== Personal life ==