Hollywood stuntwoman, Marla Casey, is from Bellevue Washington. She is a former University of Washington gymnast who has found herself driving speeding vehicles, jumping out of helicopters, and fighting bad guys in films and television.
For the past 17 years the lifelong gymnastics enthusiast has risked life and limb daily, performing stunts in such television shows like Charmed, VIP, and X Files, and in movies like Dante’s Peak (1997), Charlie’s Angels (2000) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
Marla Casey worked with abused children and teen runaways after she earned her B.A. in psychology 1986. A member of the Husky varsity gymnastics team from 1982-1984, Casey got her start in stunt work on a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California around 1992 when a stuntman asked Casey to be an audience participant in the stunt show. She enjoyed her time on stage so much that she asked the stuntman about his work, and then enrolled in a stunt school when she returned to Seattle.
By the end of the six-week course, one of Casey’s instructors, who was so impressed with her abilities, recommended her for a role in the motion picture The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992), which was filming in Seattle. She describes the experience as “beyond what I could have dreamed,” and this inspired Marla Casey to move to Los Angeles.
During her career Casey stunt doubled for Drew Barrymore’s character in the movie Charlie’s Angels (2000) where she had to fight villains, climb over walls, and jumped from exploding castles. She won a World Stunt Award for Best Aerial Work for a scene where she had to climb out of a helicopter that was flying very high over the ocean, with only a full body harness and two wires bolted to the chopper’s floor to prevent her from falling.
Marla Casey says about her opportunities in stunt, “I didn’t search for it or ask for it, it just came by chance,” she says. “The world makes your opportunities and I just say yes to them. I just feel so blessed.”
