Stevie Vallance

Stevie Vallance (born Stephanie Louise Vallance in September 8, 1966), also known as Louise Vallance is a Canadian actress and singer born in Montreal, Quebec.

Television

In the 1980s, Vallance co-starred in the Canadian crime drama series "Night Heat", which was also broadcast in the United States. She also lended her voice to many animated television shows, such as "The Care Bears" as Proud Heart Cat, "Dennis The Menace" as Alice Mitchell, "Popples" as Party Popple, "ReBoot" as Mouse, "Donkey Kong Country" as Dixie Kong, "Madeline", "Shadow Raiders", "Gadget Boy" as Spydra, and "InuYasha".

By the time she was 19, Stevie had sung and danced her way across eastern Canada with the Charlottetown Festival and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. At age 20, while fronting her own band in Los Angeles, a CBS executive heard her and offered her a recurring role as recording artist 'Sylvie' on the long-running series "Knots Landing".

Over the next sixteen years Stevie resided in Los Angeles, and appeared in leading and regular roles on such network series and feature films as "The Ropers", "Bosom Buddies", "Lou Grant", "LA Law", "Road to Avonlea", "Three Men and a Baby" and "Slam Dunk Ernest". She also co-starred alongside Ben Vereen as a character named Whazzat Kangaroo in the Hallmark children’s series Zoobilee Zoo.

In 2002, she received an Emmy Award for voice-directing the dialogue and music on 70 episodes of the Disney television series "Madeline", on which she also portrayed the voices of Miss Clavel and Genevive. Since then, Stevie has voice-directed the Teletoon series "Silverwing" and "Totally Spies!". Most recently, she cast and voice-directed Discovery Kids network’s "Growing Up Creepie".

Music career

While living on the west coast of USA, Stevie headlined as a jazz vocalist at The Baked Potato, Jade West and Lunaria in Hollywood. In Vancouver, she performed regularly at The Jazz Cellar and Rossini’s, where she had the privilege of singing alongside some of the city's well-known jazz musicians at the time, including Miles Black (piano), Rick Kilburn (bass), Daryl Jahnke (guitar), Darren Radtke (bass), Paul Rushka (bass), Mike Rud (guitar), Linton Garner (piano) and Bill Coon (guitar).

In 1995, Stevie moved to Bowen Island, British Columbia where she met Michael Creber (piano). Together in 1998, they recorded Stevie's debut jazz CD "Practically Naked".

On her second CD "Always" released in 1999, inspiration came from Stevie's one-woman portrayal of the legendary Patsy Cline, with whom Vallance coincidentally shares the same birthday. Stevie toured the show in western Canada for six years, and opened for the Calgary Stampede in 1998.

Motivated by the loss of a close personal friend, Stevie conceived and organised the critically acclaimed Divas For Life jazz benefit concerts held in Vancouver. In addition to producing the first “standing room only” concert at the Vogue Theatre, in 2001 she also negotiated a national distribution deal for the CD "Divas for Life - Live At The Vogue!", which was released and performed as part of the 2001 Vancouver International Jazz Festival line-up as a series of sold-out dinner concerts. On Valentine’s Day 2002, she produced "Divas For Love", which again packed the Vogue Theatre. The proceeds, totaling over C$70,000, were donated to supporting people living with life-threatening illnesses. As a result, Stevie was presented with the organization's Friend In Deed Philanthropy Award. In 2004, Stevie debuted in her hometown, Toronto, where she was met with a full house at The Montreal Bistro, accompanied by jazz icon Don Thompson, bassist Neil Swainson and drummer Ted Warren. She also performed for the first time in her birth town Montreal, at The Upstairs with jazz pianist Steve Amirault, bassist Zach Lober and drummer Jim Doxas.

In August 2005, with three decades of experience under her wing, Stevie moved back to Toronto in order to be closer to her family.

Film

Vallance voiced Share Bear in "" and "The Care Bears' Big Wish Movie" and the Troll in "Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus".

External links

* [http://www.stevievallance.com/ Stevie Vallance official site]
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