Interview by Rado Gatchalian and Katherine Co-Elliott
Recording of Andrew Russell

Fiorella Bamba is a Fil-Aus actor who plays the lead role in Chicago the Musical.  Fiorella is a Filipino/Australian dancer, singer and actress born in Milan, Italy. She is an only child of her parents who hail from Pampanga and Laguna but I grew up in Quezon City, Greater Manila area.  She started dancing at three years old with Glenda Yee School of Dance then travelled to the Philippines to train in jazz and contemporary with Douglas Nierras Powerdance, being the youngest professional company dancer at the age of ten years. 

She graduated from the University of the Philippines, Diliman with a Bachelor's Degree in BA Speech Communication whilst training, touring and choreographing for the UP Filipiniana Dance Group. She migrated to Australia with both parents from 1997-2005.  Then moved to the Philippines with her father in 2006-2017.  She returned to Australia by herself to live with her mother in 2017.

Now based in Sydney, Fiorella is continuing her love for performing through Musical Theatre and is debuting her first lead role in Chicago as Velma Kelly with Blackout Theatre Company (BTC). Other musical credits include; Singing in the Rain and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical as Shirelle (BTC), Mamma Mia! as Ali & Lisa Understudy with Packemin Productions and Choreographer for High School Musical on Stage with Ruby Productions. Fiorella was cast as Oz in We Will Rock You with BTC and Chistery/Shenshen in Wicked with Packemin Productions which unfortunately did not make it to the stage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fiorella is thrilled to be portraying the role of Velma Kelly bringing to the stage her pizzazz and All That Jazz.