Her initial break into acting was in her birth country, South Africa, as Joey Ortlepp on the SABC 3 drama Isidingo from 2001 to 2004.
She grew up in Johannesburg in South Africa during apartheid and graduated with a BA in Acting and Dance from Rhodes University in Grahamstown in 1995.
[5] In 2009, she had a supporting role in Neill Blomkamp's South Africa-set science fiction action film, District 9.
In the film, Jackie Weaver, Judy Davis and Miriam Margolyes stars as three nuns on New Zealand's South Island.
[8][9] She emigrated from South Africa to New Zealand in 2006 and raised her son in Wellington with her husband, Phil.