Birthplace: Nothingham
Country: England
Nationality: British
Profesion: Actress/Stunt Woman
Height: 165 cm / 5ft 5in
Weight: 58 kg / 127 lbs
Zara is actress and stunt woman who is also very skilled as martial artist. She starts with shotokan karate when she was 6 years old and started with freestyle karate when she was 13 years old. She trains 7 days a week in taekwondo, shaolin wu shu, kickboxing and (thai) boxing. She trains with katas and weapons and has talents and expertise in diverse aspects and forms. She can compete with the best fighters at the highest level in fights, forms and weapons.
She studied at Nottingham’s leading martial arts centre ''The Renowned School of Champions''. She fights in national and international point fighting circuits and wins several British and European titles. She became the first martial artist from The United Kingdom who is added into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. She gives also Lady Dragon Martial Arts seminars and workshops.
She manages the ''School of Champions'' in Nottingham and is full-time busy as profesional instructor since her sixteen. She is also a successful business woman who owns two martial art academies under the name ''Pesonal Best Academy'' and the second academy has two branches PBA Fitnez Factory & PBA Kidz Academy. Her martial arts centre "The Personal Best Academy" is "Mansfield’s Premier Family Martial Arts Centre of Excellence".
The Personal Best Academy was founded in february 2007 and the centre is recently moved to the Mansfield Town centre in Nottinghamshire. The centre is homebase of regional/national/international/world champions and is associated with Master VJM’s School of Champions Ass, Black Belt inc, BMAA, BMAI, WOMAA and the Oriental Martial Arts College USA. Her academie is the national training centre for the Great Britain Martial Art Team (WOMAA – OMAC), and is the leading ''Family Martial Art Centre of The United Kingdom''.
She gives lessons to new generations black belts with her own made training systems. She is the creator of the adult & teen Mixed Martial Art programme - IMAS "Integrated Martial Arts System". This programme is only used at the School of Champions academies and affliated PBA schools in the midlands. IMAS is a well-structured martial arts system for family and uses a combination of kickboxing, boxing, thai boxing, karate, ground work, applied self defence, life skills, weapons defence and conflict avoidance.
Her School gives shotokan karate lessons also what a traditional Japanese martial art is founded by Master Gichin Funakoshi. This is a weaponless art and is founded on the basic techniques of punching, striking, kicking and blocking.
Her school gives also lessons in Moogongryu Taekwondo (this art is formed of 3 korean terms). An rough translation of Teakwondo is "the art of fighting with the fist and the foot". "Tae" means "kicking" with the foot, "Kwon" means "the hand" used to strike or block, and "Do" means "the way" or "the art".
You can do fitness at the NRG Fuel gym located in ''The PBA Fitnez Factory''. The gym is equipped with cardio equipment as power plate, treadmill, bikes and cross trainers, kettlebells, fitness balls, pro dumbells, barbells & weights, multigym, medicine balls and TRX Training System. Women can follow the female fitness programme ''Femme Fit''.
She is nominated for the ''Young Business Person of The Year'' award and won the ''Business Entrepreneur Award''. She is the board director of the independent Martial Arts Team of Great Britain.
Her martial arts performances also resulted in two Guinness World Record titles. She kicks 43 items from people’s heads in one minute and this record is achieved on the set of Guinness World Records Smashed at the Pinewood Studios in UK on march 25, 2009.
She was discovered by director George Butiri during a fight at a tournament in the USA, where she won 4 US National Titles. He approaches her for a role in the independent science fiction movie ''Crops'' (2006). She accepts his offer and returns later back to the USA to record the movie. She starts with drama and acting classes to become a full fledged actress after she stops with her international martial arts career.
Action Movie Career
She made her action movie debut as martial arts teacher in "Underground" (2007) where twelve fighters with different fight backgrounds, compete for the price of £500,000 at a underground tournament in the UK suburbs. Each fighter has his own reason to compete for the big money prize.
She made her debut as movie producer in the action movie ''Furor: Rage of the Innocent'' (2008). She plays the innocent martial arts expert Emily Grimes who brutally is attacked by a gang of thugs. A second traumatic attack gives her provocation flashbacks which results in the rage to take revenge against those who have wronged her. Emily becomes an avenging angel and hunts down the thugs in order to kill them.
She plays Falonex Assassin 1 next to Cecily Fay who plays the female warrior Boudiccu in "Warrioress" (2011). Two female warriors of two rival tribes travel to a sacred circle of old stone once in every generation. Both women fight till death and decide to work together after they can't defeat each other. They join forces in order to fight against the Falonex Emperor's army.
She plays young soldier Kate who returns from a millitary mission in Afghanistan, after witnessing the tragic death of her boyfriend in ''The Hike'' (2011). She goes on a camping trip to a remote area of the British countryside with four girlfriends. The problems start when the girls discover that Charlie (played by Jemma Bolt) is missing during the night and they will be forced to rely on each others friendship.
She plays alongside Elizabeth Holloway, Alexander Holloway, Joel Grizzle, Beau Fowler and Craig Canning in the short action movie ''Enter the Streets of Myth'' (2013).
She plays Lilya next to Simon Phillips, Christina Bellavia and Tom Benedict Knight in ''He Who Dares'' (2014). There is an group of ruthless masked terrorists who kidnap the daughter of the prime ministers. The terrorists are hiding in an underground car park rigged with explosives and a SAS team is sent to rescue the daughter.
She plays Katarina in this story about the fight room, a place where women compete for their lives and freedom at a tournament in ''The Fight Room'' (2014). Those women are abducted from their homes and from their families. The girls fight for the gratification of anonymous people, who pay to see the girls bleeding.
She plays Lauren Jones who is the sister of Kay Jones (played by Jessica Jay) in ''Landlord: Time to Pay the Rent'' (2014). Louis Fay (played by Rob Ho) and Lauren are forced to fight against a criminal kingpin (played by Warwick) and his army.
Action Movie Documentary
She is selected by director Gulrukh Khan for a role in the martial arts docu-film ''Spirit2Power'' (2014). The docu-film goes about the spirit of Martial Arts and has special martial artis guest appearances of sensei Cecily Fay and sifu Rob Ho. The show is filmed at the backdrop of Turkey’s southern panoramic coastline. The masters demonstrate their martial arts skills and are supported by other martial arts masters with styles as tai chi, muay thai, quang, chi kung, kickboxing, weapons styles and Battodo to Wali Songo Silat.
She is also stunt woman and did stunts in ''U.F.O.'' (2012) and ''Time to Pay the Rent'' (2013).
There are several covershoots and articles about her in magazines as
- Tae Kwon Do & Korean Martial Arts "november 2003 edition"
- Tae Kwon Do & Korean Martial Arts "may 2006 edition"
- Combat "november 2008 edition"
- Combat "december 2010 edition"
- Martial Arts Illustrated (UK) "july 2011 edition"
Martial Arts Certificates
- 4th Dan Freestyle Karate / Kickboxing
- 4th Dan Tae Kwon Do
- 2nd Dan Shotokan Karate
- 1st Degree Yi Tung Shaolin
- WSA Stunt Fighting Certification
- TCFS Level One Instructor
- CSD Level One Instructor
- 3rd Dan San Ryu Do
Martial Arts Titles
- 13 Times Martial Arts World Champion
- Triple Womans World Grand Champion (Germany)
- Double World Champion & Grand Champion (Spain)
- 4-time US National Title Belt Champion
- over 50 British Open Championships
- World Point Fighting Champion
- World Traditional Kata Champion
- World Poomse Champion
- World Creative / Musical Forms Champion
- World Traditional Weapon Champion
- 10 European Grand Champion Titles
- WUMA European Champion
- 8 Gold Medals at the Battle Of Champions, USA 2007
- World Weapon Combat Champion
- 6 World Champion Rings
- Martial Arts Awards And Achievements
- IKK Hall of Fame 2006
- WOMAA Female Martial Artist Hall of Fame 2008
- WOMAA International Instructor Hall of Fame 2010
- OMAC Instructor of the Year Award
- Sports Personality of the Year Award
Action Movie Filmography
- Heart of Chaos (2015)
- Transit 17 (2015)
- Landlord: Time to Pay the Rent (2014)
- The Fight Room (2014)
- He Who Dares (2014)
- Enter the Streets of Myth (2013)
- The Hike (2011)
- Warrioress (2011)
- Furor: Rage of the Innocent (2008)
- Underground (2007)
- Crops (2006)
