Lucy Lawless

Lucille Frances Lawless (Ryan; born 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress.

She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series.

At 21, she won the 1989 Mrs New Zealand competition.

Lawless has said she suffered from bulimia as a child, but was able to overcome the illness.

Lawless's television debut was in the New Zealand sketch-comedy series, Funny Business.

Then she studied drama at the William Davis Centre for Actors Study in Vancouver, Canada.

In 1994, Lawless appeared in Hercules and the Amazon Women, that became the television pilot for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

In that episode, she played a man-hating Amazon named Lysia.

She went on to play another character, Lyla, in the first-season episode "As Darkness Falls".

Lawless received her best-known role as a heroic warrior woman named Xena in the first season of Hercules.

She first appeared in the episode "The Warrior Princess" which aired in March 1995.

R. J. Stewart dramatised the teleplay from a story that Robert G. "Rob" Tapert commissioned John Schulian to write.

The character became a fan favourite.

Vanessa Angel was originally cast in the role, but she fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting.

To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless's hair, previously an ash blonde, was dyed black.

She also wore a much darker costume.

Lawless returned as Xena in two more episodes of the first season of Hercules, which portrayed her turn from villainess to a good, heroic character.

The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created: Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September 1995.

Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent programme, was a huge hit and achieved high ratings and cultural significance, lasting six seasons.

The series brought Lawless an immense amount of attention and she became an international celebrity.

While taping an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in October 1996, Lawless suffered a fractured pelvis when the horse she was riding lost its footing in the studio car park.

She made a complete recovery, but several episodes of the second season of Xena were rewritten to focus on background characters to minimise the time Lawless was needed on set.

Xena's ambiguous romantic relationship with travelling companion Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) led to Lawless becoming a lesbian icon, a role of which she has said she is proud.

Lawless first appeared on Broadway in September 1997 in the Grease revival, as the "bad girl" character Betty Rizzo.

She wanted to play the lead role of Sandy and later stated her belief that the producers typecast her to play "bad girls" following her success as Xena.

She said the Sandy character was very similar to her sheltered childhood, growing up in New Zealand with many protective older brothers.

She has said that during the years she was playing the role, she had been undecided on the nature of the relationship, but in a 2003 interview with Lesbian News magazine, she said that after viewing the series finale, she had come to see Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as definitely gay, adding "they're married, man".

This reputation became cemented after her "graphic lesbian sex scenes" in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

She has appeared at gay pride events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

She has described her family as "this big, sprawling Irish Catholic family", and while filming in Ireland for the Discovery Channel in 2004, told Ireland on Sunday that her father's family originated in Quilty, County Clare, Ireland.

Her first musical was at age 10 and she began acting in secondary school.

She attended Marist College, Auckland, and began studies at Auckland University in languages.

At 18, she went on her "overseas experience", travelling through Europe and Australia with her future husband, Garth Lawless.

From 2005 to 2009, she had a recurring role in the television series Battlestar Galactica.

Lawless had recurring roles as Diane Lewis-Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2012–2014), and as Countess Palatine Ingrid Von Marburg on the WGN America supernatural series Salem (2015).

She also starred as Ruby on the Starz horror-comedy series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018).

Lucille Frances "Lucy" Ryan was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert to teacher Julie Ryan (nee Haynes) and Mount Albert's mayor, banker Frank Ryan.

She is the fifth of six siblings (four brothers and one sister).

For her support of LGBT rights, including her public support for same-sex marriage, in 2017 Lawless was given the Star 100–Ally of the Year award at the Australian LGBTI Awards ceremony.

Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder.