Jacqui Kaese's Biography

The Jacqui Kaese Story

Jacqui Kaese

It was 1992 and hundreds of top entertainment officials were gathered at a posh London hotel for Britain's annual Showman of the Year Award.

The award is one of the highest honours anyone in the industry can receive, and it makes an instant celebrity of its winner. This was Jacqui Kaese's year to be that winner. She had come a long way to get to this point in her life -- enjoying hard-won success initially as an actor and singer, then as a senior manager with one of the UK's top three entertainment corporations. "The entertainment industry in England is such a big thing, it's just huge business," says Kaese.

"It puts you in the spotlight."

But on the night of the awards ceremony, the spotlight wouldn't find Kaese. She won the award, but she was nowhere to be found.

"This spotlight swung over to my chair, and my chair was only one in the room that was empty. I wasn't there."

If ever a movie is made of Jacqui Kaese's life, this scene will be a clear turning point in the film.

Weaned on Showbiz

Jacqui Kaese seemed destined for a life in show business.

She grew up in England surrounded by musicians and performers -- mostly all friends of her father's, Lionel Malpass, a jazz artist who was recognized as one of the best drummers of his time.

"Basically I was brought up on music, and before I could talk I had a pair of drum sticks in my hand," says Kaese.

"But I didn't take to drums as well as I did singing and acting." In school, Kaese fell in love with the stage and won numerous awards as a child performer in local and national theatre.

By age 15, her professional career was well on its way when she tried out for Britain's exclusive National Youth Theatre and won a coveted seat against 4,000 other young hopefuls.

She spent the next three years gaining acting experience in London's West End. Kaese's first big break came in a role as one of the mods in The Who's cult hit Quadrophenia. In stage productions, she worked with Timothy Spall, Daniel Peacock and Hazel Ellerby.

Over the next seven years she divided her time between film, television and live theatre production and jobs as a backup singer for visiting stars like Tina Turner, Annie Lennox and Robert Palmer.

Kaese enjoyed great success as a singer, but her career was cut short when she unexpectedly developed nodules of the vocal chords. "Strain, stress, workload. I was doing five shows a week, plus two matinees," says Kaese.

"It takes its toll."

Kaese was faced with little choice but to end her singing and stage career and look for a new occupation.

Change Brings Opportunity

Kaese found a new career in entertainment management, working for a corporation called First Leisure and its fleet of theatres, arenas, bars and entertainment complexes.

Within five years, she was a successful general manager who marketed and promoted artists and theatrical shows while running some of the company's main entertainment venues.

By 1992, Kaese was a household name in the industry -- and so it was no surprise when she won that year's Showman of the Year award, the first time the award was given to a woman.

It was a surprise, however, when she failed to show up for the awards ceremony. "I chose not to go. I chose to stay home with my son who was just four weeks old. And that was a true testimony to the changes I was making in my life."

Kaese wanted out of the fast-paced business. Newly married to Nanaimo-born former NHL player Trent Kaese, whom she met while he was playing professional hockey at an ice rink she managed, Kaese was ready to slow her life down.

"I was working 70 hours a week. It was just not conducive to family life," she says.

"My husband and my son were a gift from God and everything else just fell into place after that."

With a year, the young couple had packed up their belongings and moved to Nanaimo.

Building The Future

It has now been 14 years and life has not relaxed for the Kaeses. Their son Josh now has a younger brother Jake, who himself has done numerous commercials, two movies, and a television series. In November 2007 the Kaese's bought Cottonwood Golf Course which Trent continues to manage.

Jacqui continues to coach clients privately from her home studio, after selling Spotlight Academy in January of 2008. She considers herself very blessed to have worked alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood and has provided many opportunities for performing artists from Vancouver Island.

Josh and Jake Kease have both been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Jacqui has now taken on the role of Honorary Chair for The Gala of Hope, an annual fundraising Gala on behalf of JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).

She has recently resumed her own acting career and taken up headshot photograpy to great reviews from Vancouver agents.

In 2006 Jacqui was awarded The Sterling Award for Business Excellence. Jacqui's constant priority is to help make dreams become a reality but it is the people who continue to dream that motivate her.

"I have walked in their shoes, I have dreamed their dreams"