The London-born, Australian-reared daughter of a conductor and a soprano, Tushka Bergen made her debut on stage in an opera at age nine where she was required to spit watermelon seeds at the audience. Two years later, she made her screen debut (billed as Tushka Benthaak) as a school girl in the German telefilm "Don Quichotte's Kinder/Don Quixote's Children" (1981). Returning to Australia, she worked under her birth name of Tushka Hose in small roles in the Jane Campion-directed short "A Girl's Own Story" (1984) and "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" (1985). The beauty found success on the small
