Vanessa Claire Stewart

Vanessa Claire Stewart is an American actress, producer, and writer.

Background and education
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Vanessa Claire Stewart attended Webster Conservatory for the Performing Arts in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating, she won a spot as a student at the Oxford School of Drama in England.

Personal life
She moved to Los Angeles in 1999 where she met and married her first husband, Lance Arthur Smith. They divorced in 2005. In 2009, while performing at the Geffen Playhouse, she met actor French Stewart. They married in 2011 and had a daughter, Helene Claire, in 2013. Once remarried, she took the surname Stewart. Stewart lives in Los Angeles, California.

Professional career
In 2004, Stewart received an LA Weekly Theatre Award for Best Leading Female Performance, for her gender-bending portrayal of Alex in Los Angeles director Brad Mays' controversial multi-media production of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange at the ARK Theatre Company in 2003. She also directed the popular Return to the Forbidden Planet while at ARK.

In 2010, she received an LA Weekly Theatre Award, a Garland and an Ovation Award for Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara, in which she portrayed legendary jazz vocalist Keely Smith.

In 2012, Stewart wrote Stoneface for Sacred Fools Theater Company, about the life of Buster Keaton, starring her husband French Stewart. Stoneface won the 2013 LA Weekly award for best production. Stoneface appeared in the 2013–2014 season at Pasadena Playhouse.

In 2015, thanks to theater producer Hershey Felder, Louis and Keely: Live at the Sahara moved to a commercial run in Chicago at the Royal George Theater starring Tony Award winner Anthony Crivello as Louis Prima. The run officially began April 9 and closed eight weeks later on May 17. An additional run at Laguna Playhouse was announced for February 2016.

Stewart has appeared in various film and television productions, including Chase The Slut, Shakespeare's Merchant, Joan of Arcadia, Rules of Engagement, and The List.

Awards and nominations
Ovation Awards
 * 2009: Won the award for Lead Actress in a Musical for the role of Keely Smith in "Louis & Keely, Live at the Sahara"