BVLike dozens of other colleagues, Geena Lisa Peeters (50) also received badnews from the VRT. “I am also forced to say goodbye. No room for an internalcoach at VRT,” the screen face wrote on Facebook. Her resignation has sincebeen confirmed to our editors. Geena Lisa has been employed by the VRT since2000 and was best known as an announcer and presenter of programs such as’Fata Morgana’.
LOOK. Geena Lisa talks about her life after her TV career
At the public broadcaster VRT, talks will take place this week with theemployees who are forced to leave as part of the transformation plan.“Bijltjesdag at VRT”, VRT journalist Phara de Aguirre tweeted on Tuesday.“Tears in one corridor for colleagues who have received a meeting request, inthe other corridor relief for colleagues who have not received it.”
Geena Lisa is therefore also among the colleagues who have to leave. She doesnot want to comment for the time being, but a message she posted on socialmedia leaves no doubt about it. “I am also forced to say goodbye. No room foran internal coach at VRT,” she responded on Facebook. After which manyacquaintances immediately put their heart under the belt.
Presenter, announcer, actress, singer: Geena Lisa did it all. She entered thetelevision world in 1992 with a role in the VTM soap opera ‘What now again?’.She also became known as the ‘Lalala’ girl in the VTM programs ‘De LiegendeDoos’ and ‘Lalala Live’ with Bart Peeters. Later she mainly worked as abroadcaster, first for the then Channel 2, then eight years for VTM and since2000 for TV1, which later became One. Over the years she also presentedvarious programs, such as ‘Fata Morgana’ and ‘Vlaanderen Muziekland’.
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Geena Lisa and Sergio presented ‘Fata Morgana’ together. © VRT
With the disappearance of the announcers at One in 2015, the fate of GeenaLisa seemed already sealed. But the public broadcaster still saw a future andgave her a new chance: she could work as a screen employee coordinator,advising and coaching screen faces at the VRT. She has held that job untilnow. “I train novice faces, but also more experienced hands. From mentalsupport to purely professional. How do you stand in front of a camera? How doyou deal with the media?”, said Geena in ‘Story’. “Be careful, I really had tofight to come across as credible as a coach and trainer. If you have the label’announcer’, you are sometimes treated stepmotherly. Executives who think:what is this TV presenter telling me here? But then I hold on. I bite intothat and stay positive.”
A few months ago she said that she absolutely did not miss her televisionwork. “I don’t dislike it and I’ve had twenty fantastic years, but it offeredtoo little substance, I thought. One of my best experiences was ‘FataMorgana’, although I don’t think the program would work now. Then there wereno social media and we could work for a week without much leaking, “she saidin Day All. In the same interview, she also talked about turning fifty. “Thatsounds cool to me,” he said. “As an 18-year-old, I had a hard time when peoplesaid that my student days were the best of my life. ‘Wow, will things godownhill for the next eighty years?’ That cliché is wrong. You have exams,need to find a good job, the right man. Now I enjoy and live much moreconsciously.”