Veerle Casteleyn was born in Vlaanderen, Belgium
on March 6th 1978. Her name means 'Feather' in Dutch. She trained at the De Koninklijke Balletschool van Antwerpen
in Belgium, and during her training she
was in various plays such as:
After leaving school, she performed in various shows
in Belgium such as:
In 1997, Veerle moved to London to play the role of Jemima in the video production of “CATS”. Even though Veerle’s voice was going to be
dubbed, it didn’t stop millions from falling in love with her wide-open face and big brown eyes. After the video, she
took on several roles apart of the swing in the West End’s production of “CATS”. Soon after, she started
to perform as Jemima on a regular basis; she also understudied the roles of Victoria and Rumpleteazer. After “CATS”, she joined the UK tour of “Carousel”
as Louise. After the tour was over, Veerle went back to her homeland of Belgium
and performed as Fredrika in the European tour of “A
Little Night Music”.
In 2002, Veerle landed the role of Julia in the Belgian
production of the French hit, “Roméo et Juliette:
de la Haine à l’Amour” (appropriately re-named “Romeo en Julia: van Haat tot Liefde") It was Veerle’s first lead role, and her first time
releasing a CD with her voice on it.
After "Romeo en Julia", Veerle starred as Chava in the Straight From the Heart production of "Fiddler
on the Roof". After
a short hiatus, Veerle moved onto television…becoming a cast member on the Belgian TV show "De Vet Volgens Milo" as Sonja, an intern at a law firm. During the
end of 2005, Veerle took part in the Belgian version of the Czech musical "Dracula", as apart of the ensemble.
Recently, Veerle was apart of the ensemble
in the Antwerp production of the ABBA song inspired musical
"Mamma Mia!". On August 9th, she began rehearsals for the new Dutch production
of "CATS", in which she will be a swing member (1st
cover for Electra, 1st cover for Sylvani aka Jemima, and 2nd cover for Victoria) "CATS" premiered in Rotterdam in October,
and will be touring the Netherlands until June of 2007.