Vanessa Anneliese Petruo-Zink (born 23 October 1979) is a German former singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Born and raised in Berlin within a family of actors, she had minor roles in television and as a voice actress before she rose to fame as one of the members of the girl group No Angels, which were formed in 2000 on the German television talent show Popstars, becoming one of the best-selling girl groups of European origin of all time. Throughout her musical career, Petruo scored four number-one hits, including "Something About Us", which she co-wrote, and sold over five million albums and singles worldwide. Following her departure, Petruo scored a top 20 hit with her solo debut single "Drama Queen" and released her only solo album, Mama Lilla Would (2005) to major critical but minor commercial success. In addition, she lent her voice to several animation films such as Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Lilo & Stitch (2002), and Boo, Zino & the Snurks (2004) and starred in the RTL action series Wilde Engel as well as the comedy film Where Is Fred? (2006). While she continued working as a songwriter throughout the late 2000s, further musical projects failed to materialize, and she retired from the recording business in favor of an academic career. Early life Petruo was born on 23 October 1979 in West Berlin. Her mother Mercedes, a Spanish-Peruvian, owned a salsa nightclub in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and her father Thomas Petruo (1956–2018) was a radio host and actor, best known as the German voice of Plankton in SpongeBob SquarePants and Biff Tannen in Back to the Future. Petruo has two younger siblings, Jon Alexander and Priszilla. Her grandfather, Heinz Petruo (1918–2001), was a famous radio show host for RIAS and also worked as a voice actor, best known as the German dub of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga. Petruo attended Katholische Schule Sankt Paulus in Berlin-Moabit as well as Liebfrauen-Gymnasium in Berlin-Westend. Influenced by her father, Petruo herself began dubbing films as a child. Aged twelve, she started taking singing lessons. In her teenage years, she made several appearances on German television, while gaining experience in music with her own bands and first professional song recordings. After her high school graduation, Petruo applied herself to her communication studies but quickly chose to leave university in favor of internships at both MTV Germany and news channel N24. She began