Holly Rachel Vukadinović (born 11 May 1983 to Serbian father, Rajko Vukadinović, and British mother), who is better known by her stage name of Holly Valance, is an Australian-born actress and ARIA nominated singer. Holly is related to the late British comedian Benny Hill — Hill's cousin was her grandfather (i.e., they are cousins twice removed). She was educated at the Star of the Sea College, a Roman Catholic high school located in Melbourne.
"Music career"
Holly's first single as a recording artist was Kiss Kiss, released in 2002. Kiss Kiss is her version of the original song Şımarık by Turkish superstar Tarkan. The video for Kiss Kiss was notable in that Valance appeared to be dancing naked. In fact, she was dancing whilst wearing flesh colored underwear; the footage was then digitally retouched adding strategically placed lighting effects. Her début album Footprints was released on October 14, 2002.Kiss Kiss debuted at #1 in both the Australia ARIA charts and UK Singles Charts in (April-May 2002). Kiss Kiss scored Holly 4 ARIA nominations. Her next single, Down Boy peaked at #2 in the UK and at #3 in Australia, while her album Footprints debuted and peaked at #9 in the UK and at #15 in Australia. Her third single Naughty Girl peaked at #3 in Australia and at #16 in the UK. The first single State of Mind from her next album of the same name debuted and peaked at #8 in the UK and at #14 in Australia, but the album didn't get into the top 50 of either country.She signed a £3 million deal with the hair products company Schwarzkopf Live to front the new line aimed at an early teen to early 20s market. Valance was seen modeling Cosmic Blue, Sahara True Blonde, Hypnotic Red as well as XXL dresses and XXL hats (each colour has a strapline which referenced other popular culture artists). The adverts could be seen across the United Kingdom at bus stops, shopping malls, on buses and in magazines.During this time, Valance appeared on Har Mar Superstar's album "The Handler" singing on tracks "Body Request" and "Back the Camel up".
"Film and television career"
From 1999 to 2002 Holly played the role of Felicity "Flick" Scully on Australian soap Neighbours.In 2004 Valance returned to acting, this time in the United States, appearing in episodes of the television series CSI: Miami and Entourage, and in 2005 she appeared in an episode of CSI: NY. She then guest-starred in Prison Break in 2006 as Nika Volek, a role which she continued to portray in the show's second season. She also had a small role in an episode in the second season of US TV show Entourage.She appeared in the National Lampoon comedy Pledge This! and DOA: Dead or Alive, an adaptation of the popular video game Dead or Alive, where she played Christie.She'll be working on the new Luc Besson feature called “Taken” starring Liam Neeson in Paris in March and an Australian drama later on in the year within Australia. Valance is also set to play a Bosnian Muslim in a new movie titled 'The Tourist', a true story set in the Balkan war.She also served as the promotional face of Australian collect call company 1800-Reverse and the UK equivalent.