Wanda MacRae Bio

Wanda is one of those people that grew up experimenting and loving makeup and what it can do for a person. Not only is it about beauty, it is about being creative and being able to show the artistic side that one can have. Taking many advanced art course, she uses those skills to pick up the brush and paint faces as the face is a beautiful fresh canvas.

Growing up with a natural eye for fashion, she quickly learnt what dressing up in costumes and what fun outrageous looks could do to give that extra edge to what a makeup palate is capable of creating on ones face. She started working on others as a teenager doing makeovers for friends and clients and it never stopped from there. She has taken many makeup courses, private lessons and attends seminars to pick up new skills and tricks of the trade. She is a qualified and experienced freelance makeup artist.

Over the years she worked with stage and character makeup as well as clientele that include actors and musicians. The Toronto Star ran an interview on Wanda in April 2001 while working on the Toronto stage show “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”. Now Wanda has moved on to more traditional beauty such as, fashion, runway, glamour, print, and bridal makeup as her work of preference. Other skills include film, T.V., special occasion, makeup instruction, commercial and corporate work. Her passion, dedication, and love of makeup make’s it a job that she loves to do. Her outgoing and easy personality plus her ability to communicate well with clients allows them to achieve their vision.

Wanda’s work as been described as polished and clean. This shows in her work and attention to detail. Her ability to use a person’s natural beauty and bring the inner beauty outside is her mission. She has left many jobs with lots of thankful hugs in the end.

Miss MacRae is also a wig stylist and has designed wigs for several theatre productions in Canada, United States and United Kingdom. She can also do basic hairstyling. Volunteer work has also been part of her working schedule.

Example of education and involvements

Canadian Makeup Show. Various seminars. Nov 8 & 9, 2008

Fashion Cares presents Fashion Scares - Metro Toronto convention center Nov 1, 2008

After Dark Film Festival - I Sell The Dead, North American premiere event - Bloor Cinema Oct 24, 2008

Deluxe creative / Lionsgate SD DVD featurette - My Bloody Valentine Oct 2008

M.A.C. Master Class - Icon's II Jon Hennessey seminar June 2, 2008

Amore 2008 Hair show benefit for Sick Kids - This is London June 1, 2008

IMAGO Bedtime stories fashion show + event Circa May 22, 2008

FAT Fashion alternative week Apr 2008

The Boudoir, Fashion event benefit for The Murray James House - Maro Apr 3, 2008

Designer Morph clothing + Goblin & Crumb accessories Feb 2008

Designer Artifice clothing Dec 2007

Industry Cosmetics - Powder Group Billy B seminar - Nov 25, 2007

Designer Morph clothing Nov 2007

Importfest Toronto Convention Centre. Nov 17, 2007

Canadian Makeup Show. Various seminars. Nov 10 & 11, 2007

Maverick creatives Toronto The Clothing Show Sept 29 & 30, 2007

Rogers Inc. customer distrubution flyer Sept 2007

Future Shop staff advertising Sept 2007

Designer Trashbin clothing Aug 2007

Designer Vanessa Lee Wishart Aug 2007

Designer Dark Destiny Design Apr 2007

Boga Moda - Editorial Canadian fashion designers' clothing showcase DVD 2007

Miss Canada Globe Production 2007

>>>>

George Brown College Professional Makeup 1. Sept - Dec 2003

Holub Make-up Artisty 1993
Make-up training for film, T.V., runway and freelance.

Secondary School Graduation Diploma (SSGD) 1990
SSGD Diploma
Completed advance courses such as Fashion Arts, Visual Arts, Dramatic Arts and Cosmetology.

::

Resume available upon request.

:: Toronto Star interview with Wanda MacRae:: Star Gazing Sunday April 22nd, 2001 Tedwigger a dish called Wanda Rita Zekas COLUMNIST She's no shrinking violet. The violet has gone to her head. Okay, her wig is more purple than violet, but we're not Miss Clairol here. She's Wanda MacRae, wig stylist and makeup person for Hedwig And The Angry Inch, which opened Friday night at the Bathurst Street Theatre. Ted Dykstra, who plays a dynamite Hedwig, is sitting at the dressing table. "They're calling me Tedwig already,'' he cracks. "This wig looks Chrissy in Three's Company.'' "There's a signature (wig) look,'' explains MacRae. "We're dropping that Farrah Fawcett look, the big exaggerated wings." Then they should drop the two "wing'' jokes in the production, which now have no reference points. MacRae has been wigging it for the past 15 years. She's a freelance makeup artist who has worked in a wig salon. She has taken hair and makeup courses as well as dramatic, visual and fashion arts programs. "As a child, I loved horror movies,'' she explains. "I was going to get into special-effects makeup." In a way, she has. MacRae worked as a volunteer doing hair and makeup on Rocky Horror Picture Show screenings, her passion for 21 years (and she's only 31) pre-Hedwig. Growing up in Toronto, she recalls getting sent home from school for "distracting the other students'' with her wardrobe and accessories. She still wears the leopard headband her mother wore as a teenager. "As a kid I wanted to stand out. I didn't want to be normal. I remember buying pink running shoes, kinda high-tops, that everybody teased me about. I wore them until they had holes.'' She has between 20 and 30 wigs in her personal collection. Her own hair is ``short and red, I like to call it Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz red.'' She has a conservative wig she wears for ``normal'' jobs, like working at HMV. "I'm the number one Hed Head,'' she admits. She first bonded with the soundtrack CD, then went to New York to see the Off-Off Broadway show. She saw three different Hedwigs, including creator John Cameron Mitchell, with whom she bonded. Mitchell invited her to work on the film version of Hedwig, shot in Toronto last summer and a hit this year at Sundance. Dykstra's a snap to do, MacRae says. He has great eyes, and she makes them pop out. Otherwise, her main task is maintenance, keeping the makeup on through all the sweating. "A trick I learned from Boy George a long time ago: put lip gloss on first, then lipstick.'' Photo credit: Michael Cooper - Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto ON