Gabriella Lester is best known for performing Houdini’s straitjacket escape when she was 14. Now 21, she is already one of the world’s rising stars of magic. But her ascent has been peppered with trauma and heartache. Here, she talks about surviving a sexual assault, and losing her first love to suicide.

I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At that time, it had one of the highest crime rates in the world. When I was five, my father, Jonathan, my mother, Jennifer, and my older brother, Jesse, moved to Vancouver, Canada. I grew up very close to my family.

Dad was a racing car driver before I was born. I grew up in the garage with him, working on cars and motorbikes and listening to Bruce Springsteen and Counting Crows. I got my passion for motorbikes and music from him. Dad is also extremely funny. All I’ve wanted since I was little was to be my dad’s best friend; I still feel the same.

My celebrity crush when I was nine was Joe Jonas [singer with the Jonas Brothers]. He was in his early 20s, but I thought that in a decade or so we’d be the same age and we could date. Being so young, I didn’t understand that other people age, too.

I saw Canadian magician Shawn Farquhar when I was 10. After the show, I went to get his autograph. When he put the Sharpie up his nose and then pulled it out of his mouth, it started my journey into magic.

Shawn opened a theatre in Vancouver and I sort of grew up working there. He’s extremely passionate and has been the person to answer every question I’ve ever had. He’s helped me to forge material, get bookings and develop myself as a person. He’s like my second father, someone I talk to every day.

Harry Houdini fascinated me; I did my first straitjacket escape at my high school theatre. All of my school projects were magic-related. I was completely addicted.

I was raped when I was 16. I really thought that would be the end of my life. Pretty quickly, though, I wanted to find something good out of it because I knew I’d have to live with what happened for the rest of my life. After my rapist was sentenced to jail, I volunteered in rape shelters to help other women. I also did a TEDx Talk. I’ve tried to be as honest as possible to help others and myself.

I was 18 when I had my first proper relationship. We met at the motorcycle shop I worked in during COVID and I fell in love the second I saw him. He was passionate about life, outgoing and adventurous. We dated for about a year but he struggled with depression and ended up taking his own life.

The day after he died, in 2022, I had my first television appearance on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. To have one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced happen, then to have something so important, taught me that I could live in grief and be going through something good at the same time. You have to learn that balance.

Penn & Teller were considered the bad boys of magic, doing rebellious things and living on the edge. They did things in ways nobody had thought of and that hooked me as a kid.

I’m performing in Sydney alongside three international male illusionists and I’m really excited to be taking the lead female role. Traditionally, men have been the magicians and women have been their assistants, the ones in boxes. Few women were able to see themselves in the spotlight.

I think the narrative is changing. It’s my goal to be the kind of performer I wish I could have looked up to as a kid, because I know what that would have meant to me.

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Now You See Me Live is at Sydney Opera House from December 19 to January 3.

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