Evocatively-named British model Vanessa Angel made a career change when John Landis cast her as a Russian spy in Spies Like Us (1985). Born in London, Angel began modeling at 16 when she signed up with Eileen Ford and relocated to New York. After taking on a Russian accent for Landis' goofy Chevy Chase-Dan Aykroyd comedy, Angel studied the craft further at the Actors Studio. Angel combined her past and present professions playing a model in a guest appearance on TV's Melrose Place and starring in USA's TV movie The Cover Girl Murders (1993). Along with TV, Angel worked in feature films throughout the 1990s, mostly expanding upon her first experience with movie comedy. After landing bit parts in Abel Ferrara's crime noir King of New York (1990) and the ill-received Sylvester Stallone comedy Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Angel next appeared as part of the ensemble cast in the independent romantic comedy Sleep With Me (1994) and starred as objects of affection in Kingpin (1996) and Kissing a Fool (1998). Angel returned to gangster films with a role in the made-for-cable Made Men (1999).