Her first musical was at age 10[5] and she began acting in secondary school. She attendedMarist College, Auckland, and began studies atAuckland University in languages.[6] At 18, she went on her "overseas experience", travelling through Europe and Australia with her future husband, Garth Lawless.[5] At 21, she won the 1989 Mrs New Zealand competition.[7]
Lawless has said she suffered frombulimia as a child, but was able to overcome the illness.[8]
Lawless received her best-known role as a heroic warrior woman namedXena in the first season ofHercules. She first appeared in the episode "The Warrior Princess" which aired in March 1995. R. J. Stewart dramatised the teleplay from a story thatRobert 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 ofHercules, which portrayed her turn from villainess to a good, heroic character.
The character was popular enough that aspin-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 onThe 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 ofXena were rewritten withbody swaps to focus on background characters to minimise the time Lawless was needed on set.[9] According to Lawless, the media attention about the accident increased viewership of the show.[10][11]
Lawless first appeared onBroadway in September 1997 in theGrease 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.[12]
From 2005 to 2009, she had a recurring role in the television seriesBattlestar Galactica. Lawless appeared as D'Anna Biers, a reporter with the Fleet News Service who worked on a critical documentary about the crew of theGalactica and was later revealed to beHumanoid Cylon model Number Three.[citation needed]
In 2007, Lawless was to appear as one of the leads in the ensemble cast of theABC television series,Football Wives, based on the popular British seriesFootballers' Wives. The series did not continue past the pilot episode, but the network extended the options on its contracts with Lawless and the other actors slated to star in the series, includingGabrielle Union,Kiele Sanchez,Ving Rhames, andJames Van Der Beek.[15][16]
Lawless returned to television on 10 November 2008 in a guest-starring role on theCBS television seriesCSI: Miami, in a Season 7 episode, "Cheating Death", playing a madam with connections to a murder and helpingHoratio "H" Caine with his inquiries.[17]
Lawless co-starred in theStarz original seriesSpartacus: Blood and Sand.[21] The show was based on the life ofSpartacus, the famous gladiator, and the slave revolt he led, and was produced by long-timeXena producersSam Raimi and"Rob" Tapert, her own husband. Lawless played the role ofLucretia, the wife ofLentulus Batiatus, who were both the owners of a gladiatorludus, which also saw Lawless doingnude scenes for the first time. Lawless won the 2011Saturn Award as Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lucretia inSpartacus: Blood and Sand. Lawless reprised her role as Lucretia inSpartacus: Gods of the Arena, which chronicled life in the Ludus before Spartacus's arrival, and she also returned for the sequelSpartacus: Vengeance.[22]
In 2019, Lawless began playing Alexa Crowe, a retired police officer turned police consultant investigator inMy Life Is Murder. TheAcorn TV series began in 2019 and reached its third season in 2022.[28] A fifth season was announced onFebruary 10, 2025
In 2023, Lawless co-wrote and directedNever Look Away, a film based on the life of New Zealand-bornCNN photojournalist and camerawomanMargaret Moth. The film had its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section of the 40thSundance Film Festival inPark City andSalt Lake City,Utah, in January 2024,[29][30] and has gone on to feature at several other film festivals in 2024.[31]
Lawless, who has a background in musical theatre, played Betty Rizzo on Broadway in a production ofGrease in 1997.[32] She continued to sing during the run ofXena, even contributing dirge music of her own composition; this made it into the episode "The Path Not Taken" as the dirge "Burial", which she sang for the first time in the episode. Two musically-oriented episodes, "The Bitter Suite" and "Lyre, Lyre, Heart's on Fire", also showcased not only her singing but also that of some of her castmates. (See alsoList ofXena: Warrior Princess episodesfor details.)
Lawless was encouraged to resume her singing career after being a contestant onCelebrity Duets, which she finished as runner-up toAlfonso Ribeiro.[33] She made her solo debut at theRoxy in Hollywood, a venue of 500 seats, on 13 January 2007, with a sold-out crowd for consecutive concerts.[34]
Xena's ambiguous romantic relationship with travelling companionGabrielle (Renee O'Connor)[35] led to Lawless becoming a lesbian icon, a role of which she has said she is proud.[35] She has said that during the years she was playing the role, she had been undecided on the nature of the relationship,[36] but in a 2003 interview withLesbian 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".[37][38] She has appeared atgay pride events such as theSydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.[39]
For her support ofLGBT rights, including her public support for same-sex marriage,[40] Lawless was given the Star 100–Ally of the Year award at the Australian LGBTI Awards ceremony in 2017.[41][42]
Lawless is a member of the board of trustees of the StarShip Foundation, the charity arm of theStarship Children's Health which is part of the Auckland District Health Board.[43] It is set up to provide additional equipment, support and help to staff, patients and families.[44] She helps fundraising for the organisation. In 2008, she sat for the New Zealand television seriesThe Sitting,[45] an arts series where celebrity portraits are produced during an interview session, with the portraits later auctioned for charity.
Since 2006, 21 September marks "Lucy Lawless Feel the Love Day/Week". The day, organised by the Official Lucy Lawless Fan Club, begins a week of charitable acts and donations by fans in honour and support of Lawless.[46][47]
In May 2009 Lawless became a "climate ambassador" for theGreenpeace "Sign On" campaign.[48]
In February 2012, she and six other Greenpeace activists boarded an oil drilling ship atPort Taranaki, and remained on it for 77 hours to stop it leaving for theArctic where it was going to take part inoil exploration.[49] She was subsequently arrested and charged with burglary, which carried an imprisonment term of up to 10 years if convicted.[50] She pleaded guilty on 14 June 2012 to trespass charges regarding the February incident. Lawless said she intended for now to remain involved with Greenpeace.[51] In February 2013, Lawless and the other six activists were each sentenced to pay a fine of NZ$651 and undertake 120 hours ofcommunity service. The judge denied the NZ$545,000 in reparations thatShell Todd Oil Services had sought from the activists. Following the sentencing, Lawless said: "I consider it a great victory that the court has struck down the reparation demand from Shell, which I think was absolutely ludicrous."[52]
In 1988, she became pregnant to her boyfriend Garth Lawless while working with him in the Australianoutback. They married inKalgoorlie, Western Australia, that year,[53] then returned to New Zealand where their daughter was born. They divorced in 1995.[54]
AstronomerMichael E. Brown nicknamed his newly discovereddwarf planet "Xena" in 2003,[58] its then-provisional designation being2003 UB313.[58] When this object was initially determined to be larger thanPluto, it gained international attention and forced a year-long debate among astronomers as to thedefinition of a planet. Observations made byNew Horizons subsequently found Pluto to be marginally larger than the object, which was ultimately namedEris. The object's nickname "Xena" was used in the press.New Scientist magazine polled the public on their preferred final name for the so-called tenth planet; "Xena" ranked number 4.[59] Lawless called Brown in December 2005 to thank him for his "senseless act of beauty", and claimed that she "never dared hope [the name] would stick".[60] Eventually, Xena and Pluto were deemed not to be true planets, and were instead classified as dwarf planets. In 2006, the dwarf planet nicknamed Xena was officially namedEris.[58] However, Brown made an indirect tribute to Lawless by naming Eris's moonDysnomia afterthe Greek goddess of lawlessness.[61]
^Brady, James (27 July 1997)."In Step: Lucy Lawless".Parade Magazine, Arizona Daily Star. p. 16. Retrieved28 November 2024.Married Garth Lawless in 1988.
^abcdefghi"Lucy Lawless (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved7 December 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
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