When your resume reads: Olympian, three-time Canadian National Gymnastics Champion, three-time NCAA Gymnastics Champion, 10-time All-American, Cirque du Soleil performer, Emmy Award-winning reality series star, television series regular, motivational speaker, and CBC color commentator, it would appear that you’ve done it all.

Stella Umeh doesn’t think so.

“I’m really waiting for my big break; I’m waiting for that one person to discover me and put me on the map,” says 31-year-old Umeh in a recent telephone interview.

The Mississauga native didn’t get her start in gymnastics the way most Olympians do; she wasn’t a hyperactive child who was put in gymnastics classes in order to give her parents peace of mind. Her mother, Patsy, got lost while driving and stopped at the Mississauga Gymnastics Club to ask for directions. Umeh began gymnastics lessons a week later.

Unlike most gymnasts who do nothing but their sport, Umeh was also a competitive dancer for eight years while she trained and competed in elite level gymnastics.

“I didn’t eat, sleep and drink gymnastics. I was a busy little thing when I was a kid,” says Umeh, who is known in the gymnastics community for her dance ability and outspoken nature.

She says the Canadian Gymnastics Federation was not always pleased with her, despite the fact that she was their national champion from 1992 to 1994.

“Members of the Canadian gymnastics community felt that I was ‘too black’ and had an attitude when I first entered the scene,” says Umeh, who was born to a Nigerian father and Guayanese mother. “Coaches would tell me that I was bringing down the energy of the team when I was 12 years old. Judges would tell other judges that I was difficult because I didn’t sit around kissing asses all day. I was there to compete.”

Due to her outgoing nature, the Canadian Gymnastics Federation frequently targeted Umeh as a potential problem-maker on international outings.

“My room was always party central at meets, but I usually wasn’t even there,” says Umeh. “I was nailed for my hotel room getting trashed at the 1991 World Championships in Indianapolis, but I was off in another room.”

Although Umeh was Canada’s top gymnast heading into the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, she insists the federation maintained a close eye on her to make sure she didn’t break any rules while living in the Olympic Village.

“I really didn’t do any type of socialization until after I finished competing,” says Umeh. “Not a whole lot of partying went on in the village because athletes competed at all different times and stages throughout the games, so we had to be respectful of that. In ’92 I had a crush on a 400-meter Canadian sprinter, but he didn’t compete until the second week so I had to keep my nose out of trouble in that respect.”

Most female gymnasts don’t attend the Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremonies because competition starts just two days later. Standing for seven hours during the ceremony’s proceedings is far too taxing for athletes that compete on the games’ opening weekend.

Umeh’s focus paid off. She hit all 12 of her routines and was ranked 16th in the world by the end of the competition.

“I will always remember staring at the scoreboard after we [Canada] finished the team competition and seeing my name as the top ranked individual competitor with only four teams left to compete,” says Umeh.

After reaching this gymnastic pinnacle, Umeh had difficulty adjusting to life after the Olympics.

“The Olympics was an intense experience,” says the former athlete. “It is the ultimate goal of an amateur athlete and we work our entire careers to get a shot at the games. Digesting the experience was difficult for me. It took nearly three months to emotionally come to grips with the experience. Closing ceremonies were especially difficult. They were a beautiful experience because athletes from all over the world mixed and mingled, sharing a common bond. The hard part was that it was the end of an extraordinary moment in time.”

Umeh continued to compete internationally until 1994. In total, Umeh represented Canada at three world championships, two commonwealth games, and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

The 1994 Commonwealth Games were Umeh’s last competition as an elite gymnast. The games were significant to Umeh because the 1990 Commonwealth Games were Umeh’s first major international competition. Four years later, she had come full circle and won the individual all-around competition, the first Canadian to do so.

Following that victory, many members of the gymnastics community expected Umeh to continue on two more years, competing through the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Remaining an elite gymnast for two more years never crossed her mind, says Umeh.

“I didn’t love gymnastics enough to stay at home and just train after graduating from high school. I loved gymnastics, but I needed something else in my life. I considered trying for the 1996 Olympics while competing in college, but I remembered that I wasn’t in a very good mood when I was training for ’92.”

Moving to the States

NCAA Women’s Gymnastics is dominated by four schools: UCLA, the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama, and the University of Utah. Umeh never had an interest in any of the dominant schools except for UCLA, but she considered attending the University of Michigan because it was close to home.

Umeh’s collegiate decision came down to her relationship with Valorie Kondos Field, the head coach of UCLA’s Women’s Gymnastics Team.

“Val was the reason I went to UCLA; I felt that she really understood me and respected me as a person and an athlete,” says Umeh. “Your relationship with your coach can make or break your college experience, and I couldn’t have found that same relationship anywhere else.”

Moving to Los Angeles proved difficult for the Ontario native. Within weeks Umeh found that the Los Angeles lifestyle did not agree with her and asked to be released from her scholarship.

“I was in a four-year depression while at UCLA,” says Umeh. “I hated Los Angeles and found the people to be pseudo-creative. I felt unattractive and self-conscious in a city of hand-painted beauty. Integrity made me stay; I made a commitment to Val and I wasn’t going to break it.”

Umeh’s career as a UCLA Bruin was ground-breaking. After earning the 1995 NCAA Title in the Floor Exercise as a freshman, Umeh led the team to its first team NCAA Championship Title in 1997.

One of Umeh’s teammates from the Canadian National Team, Leah Homma, was also a fellow teammate on the collegiate level. Homma had grown accustomed to Umeh’s amusing and outspoken nature, but came to know a different side of her at UCLA.

“Back in college, on Sundays, Stella would hold bible studies at our home,” says Homma. “Afterwards, the two of us would spend the rest of the day with a big box of Kleenex, watching Lifetime movies and crying. Stella would go from such an extreme on Saturdays - partying, drinking, and being Stella, to the religious weeper on Sundays. She’s always full of surprises.”

Though a Canadian, Umeh won over American crowds with her unique floor routine. One of her floor routines was performed exclusively to drum beats. Although Valorie Kondos Field is a world-renowned choreographer, Umeh choreographed all but one of her floor routines with her sister, Stacey Umeh-Lees, a gymnastics coach and choreographer who competed as a university gymnast in Canada.

Competing in her final gymnastics competition at the 1998 NCAA Championships, before a home crowd, Umeh closed out her career by earning her only perfect 10.0 score on the floor exercise during the team competition and went on to once-again earn the floor title during the next day’s event final.

[2] Stella perfect 10

Becoming an artist

Upon graduating from UCLA in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Umeh made her move to the stage. Umeh studied theater at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and with Philippe Guiller, clown and physical theater professor at Le Coq University in Paris. Soon, Umeh earned leading roles in World Rhythms on Ice at Sea World in San Diego, California and in Broken Heart with the Bel-Air Theatre Group.

The new millennium found Umeh performing in Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere as a member of the house troupe and teeter board performer. While performing in Cirque du Soleil is the culmination of a life-long dream for many artists, Umeh wanted a larger role that would enable her to utilize her creativity.

When Umeh heard that Cirque du Soleil was interested in creating a new production, Varekai, she was one of the first performers to contact casting director Michel Laprise.

“I will always remember my first call from Stella Umeh,” Laprise says. “I was casting Varekai and got this phone call from one of our artists in Mystere (Stella) saying she wants to be involved in our new creation. She wants to contribute in a more creative way and create an acrobatic character. She was so genuine and enthusiastic. I could tell right away that she was serious.”

Although Cirque du Soleil directors felt that Umeh was performing successfully in Mystere, Laprise challenged Umeh to show them more of herself as a creative artist.

“Stella filmed herself in her Vegas flat, storytelling and miming her first audition at Cirque. She was so funny an entertaining, so at ease with her own identity and artistic personality that I decided to show her video to the director of creation,” Laprise says.

Not only was Umeh cast in Varekai, she was chosen to be one of the performers featured in Bravo’s reality series Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within, which depicted the creation of Varekai from auditions to opening night.

“A few years ago I watched the Cirque du Soleil reality show ‘Fire Within’ and Stella was one the characters they followed,” said Dwight Normile, editor of International Gymnast Magazine. “She was the spice of the whole show for me. As strong-willed as she is, Stella was still able to survive and flourish in the creative world, which can often be ruled by overblown egos. Stella knows she has a rare talent, but doesn’t turn you off with a big ego.”

One of the major story arcs on Fire Within featured Umeh and five other trapeze artists as they struggled to develop an inspiring act on an untested piece of equipment created by Cirque du Soleil engineers. The piece of equipment was unable to showcase the performers and was scrapped a few months before opening night, leaving the plight of the group trapeze number in jeopardy. Tensions and frustration among performers were evident during the series.

[4] Triple Trapeze

“The Stella shown smoking a cigarette and bitching about Cirque was real,” says Valorie Kondos Field, Head Coach of the UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Team. “What the show was also to display was Stella’s ability to focus and become a leader in adverse situations.”

With the premiere of Varekai approaching, Cirque du Soleil’s engineering department created a triple trapeze, far simpler than the cage-like apparatus the performers were initially given to tackle. Umeh and her fellow artists created a stirring display, even in the absence of a piece of music, which had yet to be finalized.

The triple trapeze act inspired the Cirque du Soleil creative directors enough for it to be included in the Spring 2002 world premiere in Montreal. For the act, four of the six trapeze artists performed as spider goddesses, with the intention of tempting Icarus, the show’s male lead, with their graceful movements and sensual beauty.

Life on the road

Following the premiere, the cast of Varekai left on a four-year North American tour, performing in major cities for six to eight weeks before taking a short break and moving on to the next city.

For her first 18 months on the tour, Umeh performed in all 10 shows per week, unlike the other trapeze artists in the act who rotated performances.

Umeh was needed for every performance because one of the act’s performers fell during a performance and broke her wrist. While other artists do appear onstage in the background in case emergency spotting is needed, artists are constantly at risk for injuries. The trapeze artists perform upwards of 20 feet in the air, without harnesses or protective netting.

While performing nine shows a week is grueling, Umeh was able to find inspiration in the music ultimately chosen for her act.

“The thing that keeps things fresh for me is the way music runs through my veins,” says Umeh. “When I first heard the music chosen for the act, I was blown away. I was the only performer in the act to actually like the music, but it spoke to me. I loved moving to it and expressing it. My teammates in the act used to tell me that I looked overly sensual, but I couldn’t help it; the music inspired me. I was never bored on stage.” Life off stage can be monotonous. Umeh dealt with the constraints of touring life in her own way.“I kept to myself when on tour,” says Umeh. “I’d wake up, do my meditations, check e-mails, go in for training if we had any, have some physio to keep my old bones in one piece, perform, go home, wind down and hit the sack, only to do the same thing the next day. I only hung out with other performers on Sunday nights when we had a day off the next day. Life on tour can get blurred if one’s not careful. I had to find a way to have stability and structure while moving from place to place, so I tried not to mix business with pleasure too often. I like my space and I like my own company. Doing this prevented me from burning out and kept me sane.” She did forge strong friendships with Kevin and Andrew Atherton, twin aerial strap performers who were also featured in Fire Within. The trio spent so much time together on tour that Stella and Andrew now refer to each other as their “soul mate.”

“In the beginning we both liked to party, and with cities like New York and Los Angeles on the tour plan, there were many opportunities for that,” says Andrew Atherton. “We both also learned when each other needed space. Stella and I both have our own “invisible bubble” in which no one can enter. For some reason Stella was the only person who could enter my bubble at any time and never have it be a problem.”

Despite looking arrogant and cocky on Fire Within, Kevin Atherton admits he was initially intimidated to meet Stella after witnessing her success on the international gymnastics scene. Kevin Atherton was attracted to Umeh’s complex personality during the creation process for Varekai.

“Stella is a very lively, passionate, energetic and outgoing character; that is the part of Stella that really came on television. However, there another side to Stella that wasn’t shown on Fire Within, a side that she guards closely. When you have access to this side of her, you’re witness to the enormous beauty she has within. She’s very sensitive and surrounds herself with only those people that she has complete trust in.”

[6] Floor exercise

Umeh remains close with Kevin and Andrew Atherton, often traveling with them on breaks from the touring schedule. While the Athertons remain on tour, Umeh now performs as a free-lance artist. Umeh left the tour in 2003 but returned to Varekai for two additional legs of the tour during the next two years.

Umeh returned to live in her parents’ home a year ago and auditions for theatrical, television and film roles whenever possible. Today, she trains, works as a motivational speaker, and travels the world, performing as a trapeze artist at corporate events.

Although Umeh no longer tours with Cirque du Soleil, casting director Michel Laprise frequently calls to cast Umeh in Cirque events around the globe.

“Stella always delivers more than you ask,” says Laprise. “She gives you that little extra that makes the difference. She is able to sustain a rare level of suspense and mystery when performing, always giving audience members the feeling that she could do something completely different the next second. Everybody loves her, as a performer and a person. She is the type of person that is able to attract people when a friend says ‘come to the party; Stella will be there’. I always have the feeling that she has many lives within herself, always able to reinvent herself and explore the many potentials she has inside.”

Umeh trains three to four hours at a time, three times a week. For the “born performer,” training involves creating new routines and characters. Umeh waits to be inspired by music and lets the routine flow. Currently, Umeh performs a character named Sapphire at corporate events.

“Sapphire is a little weird and slightly cracked out,” says Umeh. “She wears a black tutu with paper flowers and also wears fishnet stockings and gloves, and has ribbons in her hair. My character exploration depends on the costume I am wearing. She also takes the form of a cracked out ballerina. The Sapphire is amusing and playful, but when she takes to the trapeze, a sexy, strong, sensual, passionate, and in control chick comes out.”

Being a free-lance artist means that Umeh never knows where she’ll be performing from week to week. The only consistent job Umeh has is leading a weekly discussion group for teenage girls at a community center near her home. The rest of Umeh’s time is spent answering e-mails and phone calls, and writing.

“She knows where it is she eventually wants to end up, and is not afraid to wait for it,” says Andrew Atherton. “Because of that she has had to walk away from so many good contracts both with and without Cirque. It takes a lot of guts and determination to do that, which she has ample of.”

Umeh says she always has the future in mind. While she is open to working with Cirque du Soleil again, she wants to be a part of an international tour where she can create “something new and edgy, like Zumanity.”

In October, Umeh filmed her first short film, “Robot Love,” which premieres at Long Live Film!, a film festival in Ontario on Nov. 29. “Robot Love,” directed by Mishann Lau, focuses on life in the not too distant future, in a world overrun by the AIDS epidemic. Umeh, the film’s lead, plays Suki, a computer programmer who recently lost her female lover. Suki attempts to develop a computer program for her computer, a severed Pleasure Model head, which will alter her memories in order to keep her lover alive in a virtual world. Suki’s program fails and the character unravels throughout the film.

Aerial Experiencee, a performing circus, has also contracted Umeh to take part in an aerial artistic spin on the birth of Jesus Christ. The performance will take place at a Chicago church on Christmas, before an audience of 7,500 people.

With new possibilities on the horizon, Umeh’s career could take her in a number of directions. Wherever Umeh lands, her comedic personality will surely follow.

Stand-up comedy has always been in the back of Umeh’s mind. While she has yet to perform as a comic, Umeh insists that her life is stand-up comedy.

“People are always telling me to do a woman show and I know that I will eventually. I need to create something that will utilize all of my talents. I am often compared to Margaret Cho because I’ve been known to identify myself as a gay man and am funny as hell. Margaret Cho is funny, but she can’t do trapeze; I can do trapeze.”