Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Brandt is Cape Coloured of African Khoisan, Indian, German, Dutch, San, Spanish and Portuguese descent. She is a fluent Afrikaans speaker and lists yoga, hockey, and baseball among her interests. In South Africa, she played competitive field hockey.
In 1999, Brandt immigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, with her parents and her younger brother Brian Brandt. Brandt started work in retail sales in Auckland before securing work as an information technology recruitment consultant. Following some modelling work, she was cast in a number of New Zealand television advertisements. She studied acting and was trained in the Meisner technique in 2008.
