Petra Sprecher is a Swiss circus artist, stuntwoman and actress residing in Los Angeles. She is best known for being the original cast and the creator of the Cloudswing act in Cirque du Soleil's Quidam.
In the stunt realm she is an established double for African American actresses. Some of her most notable stunt work includes doubling for Mariah Carey in The House, Vivica A. Fox in Independence Day: Resurgence and Rosario Dawson in Eagle Eye, for which she was double-nominated by the Taurus World Stunt Awards for Best High Work and Best Overall Stunt By A Woman. As an Actor, she has appeared both on television and in feature films embodying roles, which require special skills.
Early life Sprecher was born in Basel, Switzerland, to Priska, a Swiss-German schoolteacher, and Peter Osimadu, a Nigerian journalist. She has a step father named Franz Sprecher, a Swiss banker and she has two younger half brothers named Felix, an igloo builder and Benno, an engineer, who are still living in Basel. She grew up in Aesch, Baselland, Switzerland.
At the age of 6, she started performing in the circus for a period of ten years and at the age of seventeen, she began studying physical theater in Zürich. In the German language, said profession is called Bewegungs-Schauspielerin.
Circus At nineteen years old, Sprecher was one of seven people selected worldwide to be accepted into the prestigious École nationale de cirque of Montréal. She represented the school and its motherland Canada at the Wuqiao International Circus Festival (中国吴桥国际杂技艺术节) in Shijiazhuang, China with her Cloud swing act and won the Bronze Lion, which led to a guest-artist contract for the creation phase and the 3-year North-American tour of Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam.
Television and film career Due to Sprecher's background in the Circus arts - and especially due to her experience as a trapeze artist with Cirque du Soleil - she moved into the Hollywood stunt business and began her television and film career in the year 2001, when stunt coordinator and Second Unit Director Brian Smrz brought her in to perform comparable stunts— namely high Wire-flying, on Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise. This debut led to many more stunt assignments with some of the top stunt coordinators in the industry, allowing her to incorporate and accumulate a wide array of skill-sets. One of her most dangerous stunt performed to-date, is when she had to let herself get hit by a car on AMC's Feed the Beast, which aired August 2016.
Filmography Year Film Actress Stunts Role Notes2002Minority ReportPre-cog, Stunt-doubleMain actor: Tom Cruise2002The Time MachineEloiMain actor: Guy Pearce2002Men In Black IISubway CharacterMain actor: Will Smith2002The ShieldTwanyaMain actor: Michael Chiklis2002ScrubsNurseMain actor: Zach Braff2003Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlFighting Villager Woman, Stunt-doubleMain actor: Johnny Depp2003She SpiesSecretaryMain actress: Natasha Henstridge2003AliasStunt-doubleMain actress: Jennifer Garner2003Birds Of PreyRunway Model With Machine GunMain actress: Ashley Scott2004CharmedHarpyMain actress: Alyssa Milano2004TaxiStuntsMain actress: Queen Latifah2005Aeon FluxStunt-doubleMain actress: Charlize Theron2006The ShieldStunt-doubleMain actor: Michael Chiklis2006Drake & JoshStunt-doubleMain actor: Drake Bell2007JekyllChristy-MonsterMain actor: Matt Keeslar2008HancockStunt-doubleMain actor: Will Smith2008Eagle EyeStunt-doubleMain actor: Shia LaBeouf2009Cold CaseStunt-doubleMain actress: Kathryn Morris2010The ForgottenStuntsMain actor: Christian Slater2011ColombianaStunt-doubleMain actress: Zoe Saldaña2012FlightStunt-doubleMain actor: Denzel Washington2013The Haves And The Have NotsStunt-doubleMain actress: Tika Sumpter2014MercenariesStunt-doubleMain actress: Zoë Bell2015Criminal MindsStunt-doubleMain actor: Joe Mantegna2016Independence Day: ResurgenceStunt-doubleMain actor: Liam Hemsworth2016The MuppetsAerial InstructorMain actor: Eric Jacobson2016Feed the BeastStunt-doubleMain actor: David Schwimmer2016Fifty Shades of BlackStunt-doubleMain actor: Marlon Wayans2017ScandalStunt-doubleMain actress: Kerry Washington2017The HouseStunt-doubleMain actor: Will Ferrell
Award nominations 2009 Taurus World Stunt Awards, Eagle Eye, Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman and Best High Work, doubling for Rosario Dawson 2009 Action Icon Awards, Eagle Eye, Stuntwoman Of The Year, doubling for Rosario Dawson
References
External links
Official website Glanz & Gloria Television news