Finding love and a career break

In the past four years the 26-year-old from Brindles, Canvey, has gone from one show to the next, appearing in stage versions of Buddy, My Fair Lady, Hairspray and Fiddler on the Roof in her adopted home of Johannesburg, South Africa.

When she married her husband Corne two years ago, she put in two panto performances the day before and the day after, and even had to fight off the suggestion from the director that she appear in a show the morning of her big day.

It's meant that Gemma hasn't yet had a honeymoon, or a holiday in the past five years, but she's no stranger to hard work.

She made her performance debut at the age of five, appearing in shows at Kings Holiday Park, Canvey. By the age of nine she had written to Michael Barrymore telling him he needed to have her on his television show - which he duly did.

After leaving Castle View School, Gemma landed a scholarship at Whitehall Performing Arts College at Eastwood School, where her class mates included one Lee Mead.

Getting the place at Whitehall was a huge deal for Gemma, who following the death of her father when she was a baby, has been raised by her mum Jackie, a special needs mentor at Winter Gardens School, Canvey, and her nan, Lillian. It had meant that without that financial help she wouldn't have been able to follow her dream of a career in musical theatre.

She loved her time at Whitehall, and following her graduation started auditioning for West End roles.

"Each time I'd get down to the final group, including for the part of Cosette in Les Miserables, but I was told I didn't have enough experience," says Gemma.

It meant Gemma had to re-think her game plan and instead auditioned for a performance role on a cruise ship. It wasn't the West End role she'd set her heart on, but it gave her a chance to get some much needed experience, and she came away with a rather unexpected souvenir as well.

While performing as lead vocalist on the American cruise liner Carnival Imagination, Gemma met and fell in love with her now husband Corne, a South African teacher who was working on the ship.

"That threw a spanner in the works," smiles Gemma. Not willing to give up on her shot at the West End, she brought Corne back to Canvey with her.

"He lasted two months. He hated it. He thought the weather was terrible and everything was too fast."

It left Gemma with a dilemma, but she decided she had to put her career first.

"I ended up asking him to wait for me. I went on the ship for a reason and I needed to pursue my career here first. I knew that if I gave up, I was never going to live my dream."

So Corne returned to South Africa alone.

"I was in bits," admits Gemma.

"Before I went on the ship all the auditions I went for I got to the final group, if I didn't get the part. After he left I couldn't get through the first round. I couldn't understand why it was happening. I was supposed to be more experienced."

That's when Gemma's mum stepped in and suggested she visit Corne in South Africa for an extended holiday.

"The plan was I was going to go away, get my head together before coming home to start again," says Gemma.

That's before she realised what a vibrant musical theatre scene there was out there.

"South Africa was like a brighter Britain and the theatre was like a carbon copy of what was going on over here. It was the same producers from the West End and Broadway shows putting on productions out there."

"I started to think that maybe I could work with the people I've wanted to work with my whole life and still be with Corne."

There was just the small matter of finding a job and sorting out visas, but thanks to an understanding producer Gemma landed a role in the ensemble cast of musical Buddy and everything started to fall into place.

"I had no intentions of staying there. My intention the whole time was to come back and do the West End. Four and a half years later I'm still working."

From Buddy, she landed the role of Janet in the Rocky Horror Show, before moving on to play Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady. Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar in Athens and Hairspray all followed as Gemma went from one show to another.

In fact Gemma had to turn down a part in Saturday Night Fever to come home to Canvey and visit her family for a few weeks.

Don't worry too much though. She's got a part in The Full Monty lined up for her return.

While Gemma may have not had much time to come home. Her mum and nan are now regulars in South Africa. Nan Lillian has seen Gemma in every show she's done, while her mum Jackie has only missed one and that was because it didn't fit around her school holidays. The family may soon be reunited for good however, with Lillian and Jackie planning to move to South Africa themselves.

"I've got the most well travelled nan," laughs Gemma.

During her time in Johannesburg, Gemma has also found time to start a performing arts school, and she hopes that once her mum arrives, she can use her expertise, to make it accessible to children with special needs.

With plans for her close family to move out there, it looks like Gemma will be out there for good.

My life's over there now. It would be silly to leave all that to come back and start again here. Although if the opportunity came along to come back and do my dream show Les Miserables in the West End I couldn't turn that down."

Although with plans for Les Miserables to open in Johannesburg next year, with its creator Cameron Macintosh leading the casting, Gemma is hoping to get to live that dream closer to her new home.

While she's been away her old classmate Lee has gone on to live his own dream of landing the part of Joseph, through television talent search Any Dream Will Do.

I've come back here and he's famous," laughs Gemma. "He's done really well for himself."

"I find it really strange casting on television, but the way the industry is over here I can understand why it's happening," she says. "The problem over here is that if you didn't go to a well known performing arts college, which can cost upwards of £20,000 a year, you can't get an agent and without an agent you can't get a closed audition. If you go to open auditions you get to sing two lines which is ridiculous.

"I understand that there was a need for it for people like Lee and like me. Lee is an amazing talent but if he hadn't gone on the programme he would never have played a lead. He did the right thing.

"In South Africa there's a smaller pool of people you get to sing a full song, perform a monologue and a dance routine, over here you don't get to do that.

"The truth is if I was here and not working, I would probably have done it."