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A<br />
Full<br />
Life<br />
Former model and TV presenter Liz Fuller now splits her time between<br />
Los Angeles and <strong>Rhiwbina</strong>. Here's why she loves coming back home<br />
“I’ve just got back from LA.”<br />
Right now, life is good for Liz Fuller.<br />
Former model, TV presenter, and<br />
now a Hollywood talent agent, Liz<br />
has returned to her Welsh roots,<br />
adding <strong>Rhiwbina</strong> to Los Angeles as<br />
a place to call home.<br />
Although her career has taken her<br />
to many parts of the world, her story<br />
starts in Swansea:<br />
“I had a happy childhood. I went to<br />
every type of lesson going. I went<br />
to ballet lessons from ages of 4-10<br />
but at the age of 11, I had my heart<br />
broken. I’d always wanted to be a<br />
ballerina but was told that I was too<br />
tall and too big-boned. I’d had my<br />
heart set on being a ballerina but<br />
realised I had to do something else.<br />
“I was always into dancing and<br />
entertainment, so I joined the<br />
Swansea Grand Theatre School. I<br />
often say to my friends in LA that I<br />
can’t sing – I am perhaps the only<br />
person in Wales that can’t sing<br />
– so as a youngster, entertaining<br />
became my passion. By the age<br />
of 13 or 14, I’d decided that I was<br />
going to become a TV presenter or<br />
a beauty queen. There would be no<br />
doubt about it. I told my mum that ‘I<br />
am going to BE a beauty queen.’”<br />
And she was true to her word.<br />
After being crowned Miss Cardiff in<br />
8<br />
1996, Liz went on to win Miss Wales<br />
GB, and the Miss Great Britain<br />
International title in 1996. Even<br />
so, Liz knew it wasn’t a guarantee<br />
to long-term success. Taking<br />
inspiration from her family, she set<br />
out to complete a solid education.<br />
“There were several strong women<br />
in my family, including my mother,<br />
who used to be a French teacher.<br />
It was tradition in our family to go<br />
to university, so I went to Cardiff<br />
University to study Journalism.<br />
Liz was Miss Great Britain<br />
International in 1996<br />
While I was there, I did a lot of<br />
modelling work, handing out<br />
leaflets and that sort of thing. One<br />
of my jobs was being Chris Eubanks’<br />
flag girl, carrying the Union Jack<br />
when he did his tour of Wales.”<br />
Having graduated in 1997, Liz then<br />
moved to London to further her<br />
chances of work.<br />
“I got a job as a model on This<br />
Morning with Richard and Judy<br />
so you’d see me on TV most<br />
mornings during the week. I was<br />
also auditioning up to 8 times a day,<br />
trying to get various roles. It was<br />
hard work. There was no GPS back<br />
then so it’d be a case of grabbing<br />
my A-Z of London and finding out<br />
where I had to be, and travelling<br />
across the city to move on to the<br />
next audition.”<br />
Liz’s determination to go<br />
somewhere in life included a<br />
constant reflection on her progress:<br />
“Back then, I made a promise to<br />
myself. The promise was that if I<br />
couldn’t find a modelling job within<br />
14 days, I’d look to do something<br />
else. I made the same promise<br />
to myself with my TV presenting,<br />
although I extended the time to<br />
6 months for that because that<br />
kind of work moves slower. At<br />
Christmas every year, I’d assess
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