Lucy Lawless Biography And Filmography:

Standing tall, with her brown hair dyed black and displaying an excellent skill for martial arts, Lucy Lawless went from being an unseen New Zealand actor to worldwide celebrity as "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995-2001).

As a college student, Lawless (born Lucy Ryan) realized she did not have the enthusiasm for opera like she had thought, and dropped out of college to travel around Europe. Joined by her high school sweetheart Garth Lawless, Lucy landed in Australia where she found herself pregnant. After a fast marriage, Lucy Lawless and the family relocated to British Columbia for a brief period so Lawless could study acting. Returning to New Zealand, she landed small roles in international projects. In 1994, Lawless made two guest appearances on the internationally syndicated series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", as a rebel Amazon lieutenant and a shameless villain who gives birth to a baby centaur. 

American actress Vanessa Angel had been cast as Xena, the female counterpart to Hercules, in three episodes of the series. When Angel became ill, the producers asked Lawless to make additional "Hercules" guest appearances. A three-part storyline turned into the "Xena: Warrior Princess" spin-off series, which became the worldwide syndicated hit of the 1995-96 season, and won a dedicated fan following on par with fans of "Star Trek." Lucy Lawless not only embodied Xena's antagonistic, tough-as-nails character, she was also extremely strong in the series' more emotional scenes and had fun with the tabloid rumors of a lesbian relationship between Xena and her sexy associate Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). Her marriage to Garth Lawless was a victim of her exploding career, ending in divorce in 1995, when she married "Xena" producer Rob Tapert in 1998.

After the series was cancelled in 2001, Lawless had a key role in a two-part episode of the even bigger cult hit "The X-Files" playing a super solider who claims to have driven the missing Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) into hiding. Showing a skill for snappy one-liners and physical comedy, Lucy Lawless was next seen in a guest appearance as a punk rock girl on "Spider-Man" in the superhero blockbuster "EuroTrip" (2004) with Matt Damon, where dumped by his girlfriend, a high school grad decides to embark on an overseas adventure in Europe with his friends. Lucy then had a recurring role on the sitcoms "Less Than Perfect" and "Two and a Half Men" in 2004 and 2005. 

Lawless returned with roles in the horror feature "Boogeyman" (2004) as the mother of a troubled young man (Barry Watson), and the television movie "Locusts" (2005), a dull insect invasion film that played her as an investigator for the Department of Agriculture struggling to protect America from a deadly breed of bio-engineered locusts. Much better was her recurring role, complete with her natural accent, on a remake of the cult series "Battlestar Galactica" as D'anna Biers, a journalist allowed extraordinary access to the starship who is also secretly a Cylon spy.

Lucy then lent her voice to the animated action adventure "Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight" (2008) matched with the famous voice of Kiefer Sutherland, about a barbarian woman with a miraculous healing staff who gains the help of a group of to-be heroes as an army of dragons invades the land. Lawless followed with another animate hero film with "Justice League: The New Frontier" (2008), set in the 1950s, about a new generation of superheroes who must join forces with the community's active veterans and a hostile US government to fight a menace to Earth. 

During 2008, Lucy Lawless left the television screen behind and returned to the big-screen with a set of blockbusters. First, was the family comedy "Bedtime Stories" (2008) starring Adam Sandler and Courtney Cox, about a hotel handyman (Adam Sandler) whose life changes when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true. The actress wrapper her year starring with Kevin Sorbo in the action movie "Bitch Slap" (2008) 

• Also Credited As:
  Lucy Frances Ryan
• Born:
  on 03/29/1968 in Mount Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Picked grapes in Germany, Worked in gold mine in Austria sawing rocks

Family

• Brother: Daniel Ryan. younger
• Daughter: Daisy Lawless. born in July 1988
• Father: Frank Ryan. born in 1932; formerly served as mayor of Mount Albert, New Zealand
• Mother: Julie Ryan. born in 1937
• Son: Julius Robert Bay Tapert. born on October 16, 1999 in New Zealand

Education

• Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand, languages and opera, 1986-1987

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