Venetia Joubert's Biography

Born Venetia Kerith Joubert, Johannesburg, South Africa
Genre(s) pop, hip-hop, house, electronics
Occupation; singer, model, dancer, actress political activist
Spouse John Curtis Dillenbeck 1995-2001
Years active 1969- present

Venetia Joubert

Venetia Kerith Joubert (born September 6th, 1969), is an American actress, singer, fashion model, philanthropist and political activist. She first appeared on Star T.V as a runway model for Make-up Forever in 2005. She then appeared as a model on MTV. A British Cosmopolitan magazine article soon followed, in which she spoke about her relationship with her Thai boyfriend, Tanalankarn (Nu) Sarod. Joubert was then featured on Channel 4 television U.K as a spokesperson regarding inter-racial relationships. Joubert appeared frequently in tabloids, newspapers and magazines. Her initial interviews were with the Sun newspaper and Take a Break magazine.

From 2006-2009, Joubert co-produced 14 music videos with fellow producer and model, Sarah Oosterveld. Her first experimental video, Kama Sutra, reached an audience of over one million people on the internet within its first year. Joubert has also produced 3 reality based documentary movies called “Intoxicating Whirlwind” which are soon to be released as a trilogy. These films include clips taken while being interviewed by Channel 4 television U.K as well as runway footage, although the three movies focus mainly on poverty and women’s issues and possible solutions to these problems. Joubert has landed commercials for Samsung electronics YP-2P and done promotions for Asian Tourism and appears quite frequently in her free time as a model on fashion television.

Contents
Contents
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1 Biography
2 Early life, Twenties and Career Debut
3 1995-2001: Trials, Marriage and Divorce
4 2001-2004: Life with producer Sarah Oosterveld, Nu Sarodj
5 2005–2009: Early 30’s, Relationship with Gurus, Tasanai (Neng) Pipatchaijaroen
6 Negotiations with KCTV, Emmy.
7 Musical style and performance
8 Causes
9 Products and Endorsements
10 Discography
Albums
11 Filmography

Biography

Joubert was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, daughter of mobile home and prefabricated housing units construction company owner, Michael Joubert and socialite Ruscilla Joubert, whose father had been Navy sea captain to Prince Edward of England. Michael Joubert was the C.E.O of a number of companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, of which Zozo was the biggest but he sold it in 1987.

Joubert’s parents were often linked in society pages with the C.E.O of Allied Electronics, Bill Venter, and his former wife Edith Venter. Edith Venter said that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was her hero after having met her in 2001. Venter to this day is well known for her philanthropical work, especially in regarding to helping homeless babies and children. The Venter's were a life long influence on Joubert.

The Jouberts gained public notoriety when Michael Joubert, as a romantic gesture, bought Ruscilla Joubert one thousand long stemmed roses after the birth of their third son, Adam and the story became front page news. The Jouberts involuntarily gained further publicity by serving gold dust soup at a dinner party. The gold was actually only a dollar per plate, however it was a source of amusement to people and was thus often written about. By this time Mr. Joubert’s main company 'Zozo' had become a generic name and the words ‘zozo huts’ has become integrated into the South African language system. This was probably because many people in South Africa took to living in 'zozo huts' /mobile homes. Many people named their children Zozo after the company, probably due to the fact that without their mobile homes they would have been homelss.

Michael Joubert called the company ‘Zozo’ after Venetia, as she was his first born. Soon after, Venetia’s younger sister, Camilla was born and Venetia and Camilla could be seen advertising Zozo products across the country. This was the start of Venetia’s modeling career.

As a teenager, Venetia became involved in many charities and felt frustrated when she was unable to help the burgeoning population of babies in orphanages. At this point of her life she decided to dedicate her life to making films about poverty. Later, just before she graduated school, she was subjected to viewing horrific events related to faction fighting in South Africa, where she witnessed brutal uncensored deaths, such as the necklacing, burning and decapitation of victims of opposing tribal gangs. Ruscilla Joubert who was known in society pages for her sharp mind and insightful thoughts, was then asked to write a speech for Foreign Minister of South Africa Pik Botha, which she hoped would help in aiding the transition process from apartheid to post apartheid era. Venetia Joubert’s sister, Camilla, also became politically active when she wrote an article regarding her fears for Zimbabwe’s people and about the current genocides occurring ( in the Vancouver Sun Newspaper (2008) http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=0bb1c929-945f-481c-b00d-098e3572cdcf&k=85252).

Joubert gained entrance to the University of Southern California, Los Angeles California in 1987. She then attended the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, France and Cambridge University in England before graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in Cinema in 1991. When she arrived at U.S.C., she began a long-term friendship with entrepreneur, Oliver Muoto, whom had also just arrived from Africa. Muoto filled her in on the possibilities of internet, video and mobile communication combining. Joubert was hopeful that it was a future way to bridge gaps between cultures and allow for international media integration and was particularly intrigued with voice over internet protocol at the time (1987). She had begun thinking these ideas because she had been heavily influenced by Bill Venter. Later Oliver went on to create enterprise portal software. Joubert was thus impressed when Mr. Muoto was made responsible for the launch of the first Web-based Voice Over IP phone appliance (the WebSwitch).

Early Twenties and Early Influences


The Jouberts immigrated to Canada in 1992. Soon after, Venetia Joubert was recruited by a few modeling agents while walking down the street. One agent sent her to New York, and it was there that she was noticed by the Foster Fell agency, one of the top ten top modeling agencies in the world at the time. Foster Fell wanted to represent her, however she had to decline as she had just immigrated to Canada and the government required for her to remain in the country. Joubert was disappointed about having to turn down a modeling salary at a time when the modeling salaries were at their peak.

While in Canada she interned for Columbia Tri star films and was asked to do publicity for super-model Milla Jovovich and later, actor Jean Claude van Damme. She then began to build her modeling portfolio with fashion editorial photographer David Fierro.

Trials

Joubert became suicidal after witnessing torture in the Apartheid era of South Africa and also after having been raped on two separate occasions, once forcibly so after having been involuntarily drugged. As a consequence, she tried to overdose and had to have her stomach pumped. Luckily, she gained a close friend and boyfriend, Michael deVisser, who coached her intermittently through her suicidal phases. DeVisser later went to Taiwan to teach, and when he came back he taught Joubert some Buddhist principles.DeVisser had a close friend who was also a positive influence and taught her similar philosophies that got her through these phases.

Unfortunately Joubert also had a third close friend who took her own life. These events are documented in both her movie and her songs. ‘Cherry’ was dedicated to her.

Marriage

Joubert then married marine John Curtis Dillenbeck. The relationship was short lived however, due to infidelity on his part. It was due to this marriage, however that she developed her ‘new-age thinking' that ended up being syndicated in various medias, and so she was grateful for this relationship. She found statistics online indicating that the vast majority of the world was being unfaithful (especially in third world countries). Joubert soon adopted the approach that it would be better for people to assume open-ended relationships rather than cheat, lie and eventually have the relationship die. Her theory also maintains however, that when one person has more than one lover, the primary relationship weakens.

During this time, she started a successful photography business that influenced her approach to cinematography. Joubert photographed models from Wilhemina, Ford and Elite. She also became a member of the Screen Actors Guild when she became a stand in for actress Winona Ryder in Ryder’s movie ‘Lost Souls'. She then started to film her documentary movie with the help of Academy award nominated cinematographer, Steve Ackerman.

30’s

Death of Father and Political Activism

Joubert was very deeply affected by the death of her father and shortly thereafter the death of her grandmother. Joubert claimed she dreamt about both of their deaths about a week in advance of them. Joubert felt that her father’s death was stress related and due in part to the stock exchange crash of 2001/ 2002. It was around that time that Joubert began to be more politically active and incorporated footage related to these events in her documentaries, especially when she found out about the Enron scandal and read the book Meltdown, about stock exchange corruption. Joubert asserts that the current economic crisis is related to similar events and that more focus should be put on government accountability on line. She feels that many large political institutions, banks and charity organizations cause world-wide poverty related problems, issues that she blogs about or that have appeared in her documentaries or music video visuals (‘Poverty’ music video). She feels that it is extremely important that law is passed that ensures that the World bank, the I.M.F, and the Federal Reserve report what they are doing online and how money is being spent that is easily accessible to anyone online. She feels the same should apply to all banks and charitable organizations since the money borrowed/given is from your average citizen. She was heavily influenced by ‘Meltdown’which explained how various institutions could cause countries to go bankrupt.

2001-2005

Relationship with Tanalankarn (Nu) Sarodj and Sarah Oosterveld

Joubert went to a nightclub in Korea and met RZA of the Wutang Clan. She spent a few days with him and his friends learning about their musical style and philosophy on Taoism and eastern religion. Joubert was then asked to leave her hotel because she invited some of RZA’s band members over and unbeknownst to her the hotel owner was racist. As a result RZA and band member Kinetic were kind enough to set her and her friend up in his 5 star hotel.
Soon afterwards, Joubert’s friend introduced her to Sarah Oosterveld, who would later become her co-producer. Both appeared on the runway together and in various trade shows, after which both decided to join in a musical career and also to promote certain causes.

When Joubert first met Tanalankarn (Nu) Sarodj in a Bangkok nightclub, he could barely speak English, but they formed an immediate friendship. Joubert credits Sarodj with a natural emotional innocence. She states that many men in Thailand have this innocence and this has also been stated in many blogs written by European and American women in Thailand. She was approached by Cosmopolitan magazine (U.K) author, Hannah Duguid, who wanted to do an article about Thai romance. Later, she was approached by many other journalists to continue talking about this theme. She spoke to journalists and claimed that women were missing the element of romance in their lives and hence became quite fixated with Thai men, who were masters at it. Nu Sarodj appeared in several of these publications, and was asked to do several photo shoots for them and appear on television.

Joubert became disillusioned though, when she noticed a high rate of infidelity in Thailand and was surprised to find that in the modern Thai dictionary there is a word for wife number one and wife number two, but no words that likewise applied to women in the same situation. It became apparent to her that she could only hold on to her relationship with Sarodj if she continued it on a casual basis.

Oosterveld and Joubert began filming poverty related footage especially in and around Cambodia, which they then incorporated into their videos. Oosterveld and Joubert were caught off guard when they counted one hundred Lexus S.U.V’s in the impoverished downtown Cambodia, which they attribute to corruption in charity based organizations.

Joubert had developed a relationship with Korean break dancer Hyun Bin Lee during this period, but due to the fact that she still had ties with Sarodj, she kept the relationship open. This caused some mild sensation in the tabloids which wrote about the fact that she juggled multiple relationships. She dated Lee when in Korea and Sarodj while in Thailand.

2005-2006

Joubert went to live on Koh Chang Island, Thailand so that she could edit her documentaries. She had three separate gurus/missionaries approach her during this time who each spent on average 3-6 months training her in their religions. One was Indian, one was Caucasian and one was Asian. Joubert learnt about Buddhism, Indian religions, Christianity and about the Muslim religion and she claims to have been able to connect to the superconscious. This formed her ideas that all religions work as long as they concentrate on the focal issue which is love. It was also around this time that Joubert swam out to help save 4 people from drowning during the high tide season in Koh Chang, events she described as being ‘terrifying’.

2006-2009

Joubert met Tasanai Pipatchaijaroen (Neng) on Koh Chang Island. She began a relationship with him that lasted several years. Joubert almost married him but after noticing that infidelity was higher in Thailand than other countries she second guessed her decision. Pipatchaijaroen was popular, and Joubert became frustrated in dealing with his many previous girlfriends. However, Joubert began to incorporate him in both her documentaries and videos, and continued an on again off again romance with him and maintained a continual friendship.

She was then introduced by a mutual friend to KCTV’s Thailand’s Manager Keith Williams (formerly from ACDC) who offered to co–produce a music video with her. While on Koh Chang Island, Joubert then met Sony producer Patrick McGlynn, who stated that he was interested in representing her. At the same time EMI Korea Producer, Chalri Young offered her similar representation. Joubert temporarily released a few singles of her work in 2008 . Her first video Kama Sutra got over 1 million hits in under a year.


Causes

Joubert is starting a campaign to promote condom usage. When she was in Thailand she found out that Thailand had one of the worst cases of AIDS world wide until the government began a program to increase condom usage, and after that AIDS rates declined dramatically. Joubert promotes equality in her music videos and movies and is a proponent of renewable sustainable energy, which she feels is the only route to helping end world poverty. She strongly feels that wind power and sea power and hybrid cars could end the gas and electricity problem, thus saving lives (Darfur) and providing food for the poor at low costs. She also feels that these could ensure massive rapid global transportation. Initially, however Joubert feels that people in Africa need to be provided with manure, water, and seeds to help support themselves. Medicated charcoaland antibiotics needs to be allocated to prevent diarrhea and urinary tract infections and nets need to be provided to prevent malaria. Joubert contracted typhoid while in Thailand in 2007 and became anorexic as a result. She read that dehydration is one of the lead causes of death in the world due to dirty water and felt this should be emphasized in global charity documentation. She felt that antibiotics should be made readily available to the poor to stop lower respitory infection (colds) which is also one of the leading killers. She noticed that the 'street children' she was encountering either suffered from AIDS due to sexual abuse, diarrhea and colds. In her still photos you can see symptoms of these illnesses in the children.
Joubert also feels that smart phones should be allocated (i.e. one handphone per village) so that people can listen to podcasts and thus be educated and also be able to reach journalists when in times of jeopardy.

Joubert and Oosterveld tend to prefer modeling for the electronics industries for that reason. Both feel that people can be educated through lyrics which are heard on smart phones. Africa does not have enough money for landlines yet, and mobile usage is increasing fastest in Africa. Joubert and Oosterveld are making connections in the telecommunications industry so they can continue with charitable work, especially in helping AIDS babies. Joubert says she noticed that the suburban Thai population would focus on spending all their money on mobile phones as this was their only form of entertainment. She thus felt that music was a way to reach people (her friends memorized English lyrics) and that phones were a way of reaching people.
Joubert and Oosterveld believe in tithing, that means they prefer to give all their money away to charity, except for money to maintain a healthy life. Both decided on this after crossing the Cambodian border when they began filming footage of malnourished and mistreated babies who they assumed had to have been trafficked (human trafficking) and whom they felt were being sexually abused.

Musical Style and Performance
Venetia has a light soprano vocal range. Comments have been made about her usual film producing style, such as the fact that she mixes various medias. She is currently working with the leaders in the FX industry and also artists on Deviant Art and photographers in Flickr. Her lyrics often contain politically active messages.

Products and Endorsements

Joubert has been a model for Samsung electronics. She modeled for various Korean trade shows. She co-sponsored an event with Korean celebrity Diane Kim. She appeared in a show with Korean rap star Drunken Tiger. She was a spokesperson/model for Make up Forever.
She was featured as a model in several MTV videos and guest starred in several Asian Dramas. She wrote several language based books for P.E.I institute.

Discography

Kama Sutra
Yummy
Cherry
The Witch
Ecstacy
Bloodsisters
Love is
You are my Star
My Kiss
Alice
You Got It
Crush
Flirt

Album

Kama sutra xoxo


Filmography

Year Title Role

Kama Sutra The Intoxicating Whirlwind part 1 Lead
Kama sutra The Intoxicating Whirlwind part 2
Kama sutra The Intoxicating Whirlwind part 3

References


Birth name Venetia Joubert
Date of birth September 6th , 1969
Place of birth Johannesburg, South Africa
Height 5’3
Hair color Dark Blonde
Eye color Green
Measurements 34/ 24 /34
Dress size 2-4
Shoe size 6
Official website

www.myspace.com/kamasutraxoxo