Elizabeth Hurley

Elizabeth Jane Hurley (born 10 June 1965) is an English actress and model.

Elizabeth Hurley was born on 10 June 1965 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, as the younger daughter of Angela Mary (née Titt) and Roy Leonard Hurley.

Her father was a major in the Royal Army Educational Corps; her mother was a teacher at Kempshott Junior School.

She has an older sister, Kate, and a younger brother, Michael.

Hurley attended Harriet Costello School, a mixed secondary in Basingstoke, and, while in her teens, she became involved with punk fashion, dyeing her hair pink and piercing her nose.

"When I was 16 – this was about 1981, 1982 – the thing to be in Basingstoke, the suburb I grew up in, was punk," she explained.

She reportedly associated with New Age travellers in her youth.

Aspiring to be a dancer as a young girl, she enrolled in ballet classes.

Hurley continued in the sixth form and took A-levels in English, Sociology and Psychology in 1983 before spending three years studying dance and theatre at the London Studio Centre.

She was expelled from the school in 1986.

Hurley made her first film appearance in Aria (1987).

She subsequently appeared in the movies Passenger 57, EDtv, Bedazzled, Serving Sara and Dangerous Ground.

In 1988, Hurley appeared briefly in a speaking part as a schoolgirl in "Last Seen Wearing", an episode of the detective series Inspector Morse, which was partly filmed at Reading Blue Coat School, Sonning, Berkshire.

In the same year she played Rosie Japhet in an episode of Rumpole of the Bailey ("Rumpole and the Barrow Boy").

In late 1988, Hurley portrayed the title character in a four-part television drama, Christabel.

Hurley's first role in a big budget film was in Passenger 57 (1992).

In 1994, Hurley accompanied Hugh Grant to the London premiere of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, in a plunging black Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, which gained her instant media attention.

Hurley has been associated with the cosmetics company Estée Lauder since the company gave Hurley her first modelling job at the age of 29.

When Hugh Grant founded and became the director of Simian Films in 1994, Hurley was credited as one of the producers for the company's two Grant vehicles, Extreme Measures (1996) and Mickey Blue Eyes (1999).

They have featured her as a representative and model for their products, especially perfumes such as Sensuous, Intuition, and Pleasures, since 1995.

Hurley owns a beachwear line.

In 1995>Hurley was introduced as an Estée Lauder spokesmodel.

She later recounted, "I was far from an ingénue, having had my first modelling job at 29."

Hurley has featured in ads for Lauder's 'Pleasures', 'Beautiful', 'Dazzling', 'Tuscany per Donna', and 'Sensuous' fragrances as well as participated in campaigns for the company's other cosmetics.

As an actress, Hurley's best-known film roles have been as Vanessa Kensington in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and as the Devil in Bedazzled (2000).

In 1997, she received the ShoWest Supporting Actress of the Year award for her performance in the spy spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

In 2000, she was publicly criticised for breaking a five-month acting strike to film an Estée Lauder advertisement, for which she was fined $100,000 (£70,000 in 2000) by the Screen Actors Guild and labelled "Elizabeth Scably" by protesters.

After appearing in John Cleese's The Human Face (2001), she hosted the inaugural series of the British reality show Project Catwalk on Sky 1 in 2006.

Hurley was criticised as a presenter by Marcelle D'Argy Smith, a former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, who said: "Liz Hurley has no fashion experience whatsoever. She wore a dress and has appeared at premieres."

GQ's Dylan Jones defended her as someone "immersed in the fashion world as a celebrity."

She was dropped after one series because her bosses reportedly believed she was too wooden.

She portrayed Diana Payne on the fifth season of The CW's original series Gossip Girl (2011).

In 2011, Hurley filmed a guest star role in the series pilot of NBC's Wonder Woman as the villain Veronica Cale.

The network decided not to pick up the series.

In July 2011, it was announced that Hurley would join the fifth season of Gossip Girl for a multi-episode arc. Her character, Diana Payne, was described by the series' executive producers as "a sexy, smart, self-made media mogul and all-around force to be reckoned with", whose "entrance on the Upper East Side will change the lives of all our characters—including, and especially, Gossip Girl herself."

In September 2013, she was cast in one of E!'s first two scripted pilots, The Royals, which was picked up in March 2014 and aired in 2015.

The drama series, revolving around a fictional British Royal Family and set in modern London, stars Hurley as the matriarch Queen Helena.

Hurley's television roles include the E! original series The Royals (2015–2018) and portraying Morgan Le Fay in Runaways (2019), based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.

Hurley played Marvel Comics villain Morgan Le Fay in the final season of the Hulu show Runaways, released in 2019.

In January 2021, Hurley appeared as a guest judge in the first episode of the second series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.