Biography
Vaitiare Eugenie Hirshon was born in Tahiti, French Polynesia, and later took the name Vaitiare Bandera after marrying producer Peter Bandera between 1994 and 1997.
At 16, after finishing high school, she signed with a leading modeling agency in Los Angeles and landed her first audition. By 17, she auditioned for Julio Iglesias' Christmas Special music video, filmed in her native Tahiti. She was offered the lead female role in the remake of The Bounty (1984), originally starring a young Mel Gibson, but declined the part. In her early twenties, she starred in her first comedy film, Tahiti's Girl (1990), shot in Spain, before returning to Los Angeles to study acting under renowned coach Larry Moss.
Vaitiare hosted the award-winning 13-episode documentary "Tahiti and her Island" for TVE-Spain. She featured in various TV commercials and was named Ambassador of Good Will for a Disabled Children's Charity in South America. From 1993 to 1995, she served as the Hispanic spokesperson for Miller Beer. Her advertising work also includes campaigns for Cox Communications, Sears, J.C. Penney, Toyota, Coors Dry, Caroche Jeans-Spain, and Honda-Tahiti. She starred in the Spanish-language telenovela Agujetas de color de rosa (1994), which aired in 45 countries. Additionally, she made guest appearances on television shows such as Married... with Children (1987), Out of the Blue (1995), and Acapulco H.E.A.T. (1993), and appeared in the film U.S. Marshals (1998).
Vaitiare is best known for her role as Sha're, Daniel Jackson's wife, on Stargate SG-1 (1997), appearing in several episodes. She appeared nude in a scene from the pilot episode, Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (1997), where her character was forced to take a Goa'uld symbiote by the System Lord Apophis. On the set of this pilot, she met actor Michael Shanks, the father of her daughter Tatiana Shanks, born in 1998. They remain close friends and share custody. Vaitiare is currently married to business owner Edgars Asars, with whom she has a son, Kenta Asars, born in 2005, who has been modeling and acting since the age of two.
She has appeared in various advertisements with her family and has continued to pursue her acting career.
Vaitiare lives in Los Angeles with her family.
