Brenda Brett (nee Lurie) was born in 1952 Stellenbosch, South Africa, grew up in Port Elizabeth and was educated at Collegiate High School. She studied Speech and Drama at Cape Town University and at the Rita Maas Studio, and taught in Johannesburg for twenty years. She and her husband Eric immigrated to London in 1993 where she studied and worked in the interior design field. The Bretts came to live in Israel in 2009 and reside in Modiin.