Tobin Saunders is a freelance performer, writer, choreographer, dancer, actor, DJ and events Co-ordinator/producer, based in Sydney and northern NSW, Australia. He combines elements of contemporary dance, expressive movement, popular culture, social comment and satire in his performance work. Over the past 20 years he has been involved in theatre works, production and performance at the Sydney Mardi Gras, in fashion parades, film and dance variety at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre. Saunders is openly gay and HIV-positive. Saunders is not a drag queen or a transsexual, instead describing himself as a 'gender illusionist.' A short film by Matthew Pond about Saunders' life, called Undressing Vanessa, won the award for Best Short Documentary at the 2008 Inside Film (IF) Awards, and has screened in film festivals all around the world.

Saunders' alter-ego Vanessa Wagner is one of Australia’s most colourful and entertaining identities, and a national icon. She co-hosted the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade telecasts on Channel Ten for 5 years, plus making regular appearances as talk back host on national youth radio station Triple J. Wagner's other credits include Celebrity Big Brother, print and TV commercials for ISP OzeMail and Snickers chocolate bars, and a myriad of corporate speaking & charity works across Australia. Wagner appeared live in front of a global audience in the drag queen sequence during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Astro-logically one would expect to find a prominent feminine presence in Saunders' chart, and indeed he has the Moon, earth mother asteroid Ceres, plus the Black Moon close to his Ascendant. These three are all huddled in hard-working and fame-finding Capricorn, explaining Wagner's status as one of the busiest, most successful and most famous gender-bending characters in Australia (alongside Dame Edna Everage). Saunders' unaspected Venus in the Aquarian decan of Libra has manifested in Vanessa Wagner's unique fashion sense, glamorous look, humanitarian spirit and kind and loving nature.

Meanwhile, Saunders has channelled his Scorpio Neptune-Sun conjunction into charity work: Wagner has often hosted benefit events to help people living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the rare Uranus-Pluto conjunction is personalized in his chart not only because it sits on his MC but also because it aspects both of his Luminaries. Uranus is associated with individuality and entertainment, while keywords for Pluto include sex, power, and transformation. With these planets joined together high in the sky (conjunct Mars in the chart for Australia), Saunders, through his character Vanessa Wagner, has become not only an Australian icon but also an influential national figure who (in a fun way) has changed and improved public perceptions about gay people, transgender people and people living with HIV/AIDS.