.
Guest Character Profiles > Marisa Taylor Shannon Barker

Hoping for a future career in the AFLW, Yashvi Rebecchi began playing for the Eden Hills Dolphins, but soon found herself facing racist taunting from another team member, Marisa Taylor. Yashvi was upset as Marisa suggested that Yashvi was getting preferential treatment from the umpire due to the colour of her skin, but when friend Piper suggested that she should report it to the coach, Yashvi was reluctant, admitting that she was worried about how her mum, Dipi, would react. After deliberately playing badly in the next game, Yashvi was relieved when Marisa didn't say anything but as they were all setting up for a fundraising event for the footie team a few days later, Yashvi was upset to receive a racist text message from Marisa. Yashvi ran off, but was persuaded to return by her aunt, Mishti, who believed that Yashvi was just nervous about the attention and potentially receiving an award.

When Yashvi returned to the fundraiser, she soon found herself being intimidated by Marisa and was crying in the bathroom when it was announced that she'd won the Rising Star Award. Dipi tracked down her missing daughter, shocked to see how upset she was, and even more shocked when she was shown the text message that Marisa had sent to her. However, now aware that Yashvi was worried about her overreacting, Dipi chose to go and accept the award on her daughter's behalf, rather than confronting Marisa and her mother, Lesley, in front of everyone. After hearing that her mum had once been denied a part in a school play because she was Indian, Yashvi realised that she needed to stand up to Marisa rather than let her get away with her behaviour. A meeting was then arranged, with Yashvi, Dipi, Marisa and Lesley, as well as Romy, the team coach, in attendance. Having seen the text messages, Romy told Marisa that it was unacceptable but, as Yashvi explained that there was verbal abuse too, Marisa refused to apologise and was told that she was dropped from the team.

With Marisa working in housekeeping at Lassiters hotel, she was still hanging around Harold's Cafe, run by Dipi and her husband, Shane, and when Marisa came in one day to use the toilets, Shane asked her to leave - at which point she told him that there were a lot of people who shared her beliefs. He then asked Leo Tanaka if he could find a way to fire Marisa after her recent behaviour, but Leo explained that, unless she did anything whilst wearing the uniform or brought the hotel's reputation into disrepute, then there was nothing he could do.

A couple of months later, Piper was upset to see the hotel's Assistant Manager Chloe Brennan getting pally with Marisa as they decorated the Waterhole for a Christmas in July event. Though Chloe pointed out that people were capable of change and that Marisa's views had nothing to do with her job, Piper wasn't convinced. When Chloe later asked Marisa to put up some advertising posters around the complex, featuring the Rebecchis as the Faces of Lassiters, Marisa said that the family were responsible for her getting kicked off her football team though she insisted that it wouldn't be a problem. However, when Dipi then found one of the posters that had been defaced and directly accused Marisa, she denied everything, assuring Chloe that she was innocent. However, when Marisa was then spotted ripping down another of the posters, Chloe decided that she could no longer ignore the issue and had her fired.

A few days later, youngest Rebecchi child Kirsha admitted that she'd been the one who sabotaged the posters, hoping that it might cause the hotel to fire the family and end the teasing she was getting at school. Though Shane decided that nobody else needed to know, and that Marisa deserved to be fired anyway, Kirsha felt guilty when Marisa was unable to pay for her coffee as she didn't have a job. As Kirsha tried to talk to her, Marisa ranted about how these accusations had ruined her chances of finding another job, which meant she couldn't help her mum with paying the bills, which was causing stress at home. Hearing this, Kirsha confessed her guilt and, initially believing that this would get her job back, Marisa was annoyed when she tried to talk to Leo about it and he brushed her off. However, after overhearing how much Dipi loved being the Face of Lassiters, she then decided on a different tactic, telling Kirsha that she wanted free meals at Harold's and to be given money from the till, or she would expose Kirsha's guilt and ruin Dipi's dream. Although she initially went along with it, Kirsha quickly felt guilty as her mum noticed that $50 was missing and suspected the new waitress and so she confessed everything to her dad. Realising the awkward position he'd put his daughter in, Shane told her that he would fix things - he then put the money in the back of the till for Dipi to find it, and angrily warned Marisa to stay away from his family. Unfortunately for Shane, Marisa recorded his threatening behaviour and sent an edited video to hotel manager Terese Willis, making it look like an unprovoked and prolonged verbal assault from an older man towards a young girl.

Realising that Marisa could now sue the hotel, it was decided that she could have her job back and, believing that she'd won, she headed over to Harold's, wearing her staff uniform, to order a coffee. Yashvi then took the opportunity to apologise for her dad's behaviour and for Kirsha not taking the blame sooner for defacing the posters. She then added that she now realised why Marisa hated her and her family so much - because she was mediocre and couldn't handle Yashvi being better at football so she attacked her skin colour. As Marisa tried to claim that Yashvi's skin colour got her special treatment, Yashvi insisted that she'd earned her success and that Marisa could be successful too if she stopped feeling bitter and miserable over her own mediocrity. Aware that Yashvi was right, and with no clever comeback of her own, Marisa then beat a hasty retreat from the cafe.

Episodes Featured
7845, 7853, 7854, 7890, 7900, 7904

Biography by Steve

Back