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Lucy Lawless (Xena)

Lucy Lawless (born Lucille Frances Ryan; March 29, 1968) is a New Zealand actress and singer perhaps best known for playing the title character of the television series Xena: Warrior Princess. Lawless, the fifth of seven children, was born in Mount Albert, New Zealand, the daughter of Julie and Frank Ryan, who was a banker and mayor.[1] She has five brothers and one sister, and began acting in secondary school. At Auckland University, she studied foreign languages for a year. She dropped out and left for Europe with her boyfriend, Garth Lawless, to travel in Germany and Switzerland. The couple then moved to Australia, where she worked briefly as a gold miner. At 19, she became pregnant with Garth's child. In 1988, they married in Kalgoorlie, Australia. They returned to New Zealand and had a daughter, Daisy Lawless (born July 15, 1988). The couple divorced in 1995. Lawless married Xena executive producer, Robert Tapert, on March 28, 1998. Lawless and Tapert have two sons: Julius Robert Bay Tapert (born October 16, 1999) and Judah Miro Tapert (born May 7, 2002), both born in Auckland, New Zealand. Lawless had a guest role in New Zealand TV series Shark in the Park (1990), around the same time as future Xena actor Karl Urban. In 1994, Lawless appeared in Hercules and the Amazon Women, the pilot film 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", but her key role was given to her when she was asked to play a villainous warrior woman named Xena in the episode "The Warrior Princess", aired in March 1995. Vanessa Angel had originally been cast in the role, but fell ill and was unable to travel to New Zealand for shooting. To differentiate between Xena and the similar Lysia, Lawless' hair, naturally ash blond, was dyed black. Xena subsequently returned in two more episodes of Hercules first season. Xena underwent a change of heart over the course of her several Hercules episodes, and decided to devote her life to fighting for good to make up for her past misdeeds. The character was popular enough that a spin-off series was created for her. Xena: Warrior Princess debuted on 4 September 1995 (although Lawless appeared as Lyla once again, in the second season Hercules episode "Outcast" – aired in October 1995). Xena: Warrior Princess, like its parent program, was a hit, lasting six seasons, and Lawless became an international celebrity. She even appeared as a super-powered version of herself on the The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror X (1999), though she spoke with an American accent, as she did when hosting Saturday Night Live in 1998, rather than her native New Zealander accent. In 1997, Lawless was named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine. Days earlier on 6 May 1997, Lawless inadvertently exposed one of her breasts as she concluded a performance of the US national anthem at an NHL hockey game in Anaheim, California between the Mighty Ducks and Detroit Red Wings. Lawless was quoted in Newsweek as saying "Obviously, I was mortified... It was quite a bit more exposure than I want". Lawless has since appeared onstage in the Vagina Monologues, and as a television guest star in episodes of The X-Files, Just Shoot Me!, The Bernie Mac Show, Two and a Half Men, and Veronica Mars. She was also featured in the short-lived television series Tarzan. Lawless has made cameo appearances in the movies EuroTrip, Spider-Man, and the horror film Boogeyman (2005). She returned to television in the TV movie Locusts! and its sequel Vampire Bats. From 2005 to 2007, Lawless has had a recurring role in the television series Battlestar Galactica. She portrays D'Anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who works on a critical documentary about the crew of the Galactica and is later revealed to be a Cylon (Number Three). In 2007, she was slated to star in the new ABC TV series Football Wives - a remake of the ITV drama Footballers' Wives which ran for five years. Instead of soccer players, this series would have been about the wives of professional American football players. However, Lucy announced on her official website that the show had not been picked up by ABC. Although her character appeared to be 'killed' off Battlestar Galactica it has been confirmed that she will return to the show for the series' last season for a 2-3 episode arc. Lawless has a cult following in the lesbian community, largely because of Xena's ambiguous relationship with travelling companion Gabrielle. Although Lawless is heterosexual, she has appeared at gay pride events such as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In a 2003 interview with Lesbian News magazine, she said that she had come to see Xena and Gabrielle's relationship as gay after viewing the series finale, though she has also stated on several occasions that she was undecided on the nature of the relationship while playing the role. Lawless competed as one of the celebrity singers on the reality TV show Celebrity Duets, which premiered August 29, 2006, on the U.S. Fox channel. She finished runner-up to Alfonso Ribeiro. She co-starred in the 2006 movie The Darkroom. She also guest starred in the USA network series Burn Notice on September 13, 2007. On October 21, 2007, she guest starred as Larry David's date on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, after Larry's wife Cheryl leaves him. Lawless provided the voice of Goldmoon for Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, a direct-to-DVD animated movie based on the novel of the same name. The movie was released on January 15, 2008. In addition, she will provide the voice for Wonder Woman in the direct-to-video animated movie Justice League: The New Frontier.

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