Biography of Meryl Cassie
Meryl Danielle Cassie was born on April 2, 1984 in George, Cape Province, South Africa, is a New Zealand actress and singer. She is most famous for her role as Ebony in the sci-fi series The Tribe, but has also appeared in other series, such as Revelations – The Initial Journey, Shortland Street and Hercules.
She is also a talented singer, and sung the theme song of The Tribe from season 2 to 5, including being the lead singer on Abe Messiah, an album inspired from The Tribe. Along with her sisters Megan Alatini and Monique Cassie, she formed a band called the Nubian Angels in her early teens. The band relaunched in 2007, and have made various performances for charity in co-operation with Variety, the Children’s Charity, including joining them on the 2008 Variety Bash tour, and at other charity and social events.
Meryl moved from New Zealand to Bondi Beach, Australia in 2008, where she auditioned for Australian Idol.
Meryl wanted to become an actress ever since she was 5 years old. She has trained in drama at the Young People’s Theatre and Nathan Homestead. Because she wanted to get into acting as soon as possible, she got an agent at the age of 9, as she saw this as the first and best option to achieve her goal. Meryl got her first acting job in the New Zealand kids show What Now at the age of 11, where she starred as a field presenter.
In 1998, Meryl auditioned for the show that would give her both success and acting experience: The Tribe. She auditioned for the role of the character Salene, but the producers called her and told her she had received the role of Ebony, one of the antagonistic characters on the show.
Official filming of the first season commenced in August 1998, and lasted for six months to March 1999. The fifth and last season wrapped up principal photography on March 1, 2003.
Following on on from her appearance in P-Money’s music video for “Everything” in 2008, Meryl became the lead in his music video “Angels”, where she plays the girlfriend of P-Money’s who is being haunted by supernatural beings. January 2010 saw Meryl appar in Legend of the Seeker, in the season 2 episode “Resurrection” where she played a courtesan named Bella. As well performing in several gigs in Auckland, Meryl Cassie also featured on the P-Money album Everything, doing vocals on the track Dance With You. The track also features PNC, Vince Harder and Mz J. Meryl joined them and P-Money in the music video for the track, it marked her third appearance in a P-Money music video.
In August 2010 Meryl Cassie has an appearance on New Zealand comedy series The Jono Project where she will be in a parody/homage to the international hit show Glee (TV Series).
She is a single mother to a son named Rylon and they live in Auckland, New Zealand.