Born and bred in Singapore, Vanessa graduated in 2011 from Nanyang Technological University where she majored in English Literature and minored in Drama and Performance.

She discovered her love for theatre when she joined Singapore Repertory Theatre's Young Company in 2010, training under veteran actor and educator Daniel Jenkins for 2 years. Theatre credits include: Grimm Tales (Singapore Repertory Theatre), Ai Si (Little Red Shop), Off Centre and Fat Pig (Yellow Chair Productions), ABCD: FourPlays (Theatreworks and Vertical Submarine) and Julius Caesar (Singapore Repertory Theatre).

A frequent face on local television and online content, Vanessa is perhaps most known for her portrayal of Ho Min Yi across 4 seasons of Lion Mums (Ochre Pictures, Mediacorp), though she has also made her international debut in the first season of Marco Polo (The Weinstein Company, Netflix). She will next appear in Third Rail which airs in late 2022. Television credits include: In Cold Blood, Code of Law, Spouse for House, Rules of Tham, Zero Calling, Lion Mums, Marco Polo, PI, SR115, Love by Numbers, Third Rail.

Vanessa is also an accomplished television presenter and LIVE events host, and has worked with both local and international brands such as Volkswagen, Sephora, Hublot and WTA. On screen, she has co-presented the LIVE telecast of local singing competition The Final 1 (Mediacorp) and The Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (SuperSports Arena, 2012 and 2013). She also had a brief but enriching position as a co-anchor on Fox Sports Asia (2014) and Super Sports 360 (2016).

In 2017, Vanessa decided to expand into screenwriting, and began working with various production houses. Her sensitivity for language and nuance enabled her to be an asset in many writers’ rooms, and she worked on a number of key titles over the next 5 years (@Starcrossed, The Fifth Floor, The Wedding Survival Handbook, The Deep End, Tribes, Titoudao, The Teenage Textbook Returns, The Cheaters’ App, Lion Mums S4, After Dark, S.P.Y, Kisses from Death).

In 2022, she founded her own production company, Nightjar Films, with long-time collaborator Yeo Lay Har and fellow Fly Entertainment artiste, Jason Godfrey. In their first year as a media company, Nightjar Films was commissioned by Mediacorp to produce two dramas and was also awarded an IMDA MEP grant for concept development. Vanessa looks forward to growing as a writer and producer, and hopes to become a successful showrunner in the near future.

Vanessa is proudly represented by FLY Entertainment.