Growing up in Australia, Zuleikha Stevens was always interested in fashion and beauty, from making her dolls look good to experimenting with her own makeup. She was a girly girl, enjoying doing her nails, giving facials and massages, and doing her hair. As she grew, this hobby turned into a passion, and she knew she would spend her life dedicated to making people look and feel beautiful.
Now, Stevens is a sought-after hair and makeup artist in her home country and abroad. Her career has been extremely varied; she has worked on every aspect of the industry, including fashion, runway, beauty, print, film, live TV and recorded, red carpet, and more. Audiences all over her country have seen her work on Supercars and Sunrise, on Network 7 and MTV, in the pages of their favorite magazines and in the theatres on their favorite movies. She has always known she was meant to be in beauty and being a hair/makeup artist was her true calling.
“I love what I do and find that every day there is something new. The highlight is that I have worked on and with so many talented people, like celebrities, musicians, TV personalities, directors, producers, writers, photographers, and other stylists, makeup artists and hairdressers, and from this have had my work on the big screen, small screen and pages of magazines. I am so grateful for everything that has come my way and excited by what is to come. I am one of the lucky ones who gets to work doing what I love. I can’t believe that this is actually my job,” said Stevens.
Doing hair and makeup does not just involve a glam look for a woman going to an event or appearing on screen, but also the subtlety of enhancing the natural appearance of any gender. This is a fine art, and one Stevens excels at, as viewers can see in her work on Big Bash. The Big Bash League is an Australian professional cricket league, and Big Bash is the network programming of the events. Stevens came onto the show in its infancy back over five years ago and has helped make it what it is today.
“The crew members are friendly, and we all work well together to create a successful show year after year and the hosts bring so much to the show. It’s nice to watch and talk to them about what they are passionate about. Everyone involved works extremely hard and it is great that all of this is recognized with the amazing broadcast and ratings,” said Stevens.
Stevens started off doing makeup for Big Bash five years ago for celebrated Host Mel McLaughlin, as well as international cricket stars Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Sir Viv Richards, and Freddie Flintoff. At the time, it was broadcast by Network 10, but moved to Network 7 last year. During the move, McLaughlin insisted Stevens come and join the makeup team once again. Stevens’ work is essential to the success of the show as she knows from years of experience what makeup was needed and appropriate for each person, each location and in any condition. McLaughlin recognized this and didn’t want to lose her, as it is such a busy show and each host has many different commitments and places to be at different times. Stevens is extremely quick and makes sure everyone looks and feels good, which is paramount for them to be confident in front of the camera.
“It was great working on this as the atmosphere of these live sports telecasts is electric. It is very fast paced and because it is a live sport anything can happen. You need to be very organized and good with timings - sorting out when and who will be in your chair so they are ready when needed as they all had different commitments on the days and this varied depending on the time of the match, the location of the match and when we would be going live on the telecast,” Stevens described.
Big Bash is the highest rating sport on Summer TV in Australia, and it is broadcast all around the world. It won a Logie for ‘Most Outstanding Sports Coverage’ in 2016, a team that Stevens was and is proud to be a part of.
“It is great knowing that I am part of a show that is so successful year after year. Behind the scenes, everyone works so hard and it is shown on the live screen every time. The hosts and commentators are full of knowledge and talent and bring so much to the show and knowing I play a vital part in helping make them look and feel good prior to going live is a really amazing feeling. It is always great when summer comes around and Big Bash starts again, getting people talking and bringing friends and families together, and that is nice to be a part of,” she concluded.
Check out Big Bash to see world class athletes and top-notch TV.