New Zealand native Lucy Lawless is best known to American audiences for her starring role as the fierce and beautiful title character of Xena: Warrior Princess, which thrilled audiences worldwide for six years.
The fifth of seven children and the oldest girl in her family, Lawless was educated primarily in convent schools, where she developed an early interest in acting and began appearing in numerous musicals and plays.
Following high-school graduation at 17, Lawless attended Auckland University for a short time before her passion for adventure took her to Europe. She began traveling through Germany and Switzerland; when money ran out, she headed for Australia and signed on with a gold-mining company in Kalgoorlie, a small town in the outback, roughly 500 miles from Perth.
She was subsequently relocated to a tiny mining camp two hours farther away from civilization. One of the very few women miners, she did the same grueling work as the men — digging, mapping, and driving trucks. Returning to Auckland shortly thereafter, she renewed her determination to pursue a career in acting and landed her first real acting job at the age of 20, with a comedy troupe on a television series called Funny Business.
In addition to Xena and her role on Battlestar Galactica, Lawless has made notable appearances on The X-Files, Bernie Mac, Two and a Half Men, Less than Perfect and Just Shoot Me. She recently starred in the telefilms Locusts and Vampire Bats. On the big screen, Lawless played memorable roles in Eurotrip, Spider-Man and Boogeymen. Her upcoming work includes a turn in the psychological thriller The Darkroom.