Samantha Bruce

Sam is well known for her days as being a professional skateboarder. She was first recognised at her local skateboard competition where she was the only female to enter. She brazenly entered the under 16's comp, where she skillfully won herself 1st place. It was from here she managed to propel herself into the national skateboard scene winning sponsorship from the likes of Vans shoes and Animal clothing at the age of 14. Like many children and teenagers in the area where she lived in West London, Samantha fell into a life of gangs and crime, a life she felt she had no choice of living. It was discovering skateboarding that "saved her life" just as she was seeing her friends one by one ending up in prison. This enabled her to leave the life of crime as a young teen, which boosted her confidence, where she found her new calling as a professional skater, entering competitions and performing demonstrations at skateparks all around the UK. At 15 she got her first taste of being on screen when her Vans Team Manager Christian Stevenson (AKA DJ BBQ) invited her to be a part of a kids show he had created for Channel 5, Milkshake called "Rad The Groms Tour America". It was a documentary style shoot following several teenagers as they travelled across 4 states of America over 3 weeks, hitting up as many skateparks and skate spots as possible, occasionally getting into trouble and trying out different activities along the way. 'Rad' ended up winning a BAFTA for best children's entertainment in 2005. A year later Sam went on to film a follow up to the inaugural Rad TV show dubbed "Rad, The Groms Down Under" which was set in Australia where the team travelled all up the east coast, skating, surfing and inevitably having some good times. Sam's upbringing was slightly unconventional with War as a recurring theme of her upbringing. Her Father was a soldier who fought in the Korean and Rhodesian War and was initiated as a Knights Templar further down the line. Her Mother, born in Saigon, Vietnam, was raised during the period that saw Vietnam wracked by conflict before seeking asylum in the UK in the 80's after meeting her first husband who worked as a neurosurgeon for the Red cross in Vietnam at that time. Her mother later remarried Sam's Father. With all this in tow, this is where we suspect Sam gets her very rough and tumble side from. As a child Sam grew up with a slight disadvantage, as circumstances meant that she acted as a young carer to both her parents who were out of work and disabled. It was only at the age of 27 that she decided to take her life in to her own hands and began to pursue all the things she couldn't do as a child (due to her responsibilities as a primary carer). This, in turn, is the point when she fell in love with stunt training and her exploration of the world of acting began. Meeting fellow actor Sia Alipour on a commercial shoot one day and finding out about his accomplishments, she fell in love with training to be a stunt actor, he then invited her to an open class of his Fathers Dojang in West London, she immediately fell in love with the martial art and has since started competing professionally. Following this, she has also been training in swimming, rock climbing and bouldering. Sam enjoys presenting and performing: Being in front of a camera whilst presenting 'The Groms' from an early age, it was a natural progression for her to train as an actor, which she did at the Identity School of Acting in London which led on to becoming a Children's TV presenter of her own show called "Meet The Experts" for channel 5. In her spare time she organises and MC's Skateboarding events and competitions for the local community, bringing together children, teenagers and adults, encouraging everyone to take part, especially those who, like her at the time, needed a way out.