Lucy Lawless

Make no mistake about it, Lucy Lawless is a television icon. Best known for her role as Xena: Warrior Princess, Lawless has ventured into the big screen arena a few times in her career. For the most part, though, the tantalizing actress has kept her career centered on the small screen.

MY LIFE IS MURDER

Just because you might not have seen Lucy Lawless lately isn’t because she hasn’t been acting, but more because the show she’s been on has been airing on New Zealand.

That was My Life is Murder, which starred Lucy Lawless as PI Alexa Crowe. The show was a murder-mystery series in which Lawless’s character solved crimes as an ex-member of the Melbourne police department.

The show revolves around her character who was a criminal investigator but also a baker. It has aired for three seasons with the last one coming in 2022.

LUCY LAWLESS IS ON INSTAGRAM AND LIVES IN NEW ZEALAND

These days, there hasn’t been much (if any) on-screen work for Lucy Lawless. She’s living in New Zealand with her husband Rob Tapert and their three children. She has had some voice work like in Minions: The Rise of Gru, but for the most part, her roles have been few and far between.

She does have an Instagram account with almost 300K followers, but even that has gone a bit dark as of late. Lucy Lawless hasn’t posted there in more than a year, keeping even the social media sharing to a minimum.

She has said in the past that she thinks a reboot of Xena could be coming at some point, though there aren’t any real specifics. A planned reboot of the show and character had cropped up in 2015, but nothing came of it at the time.

LUCY LAWLESS’S FIRST BIG ROLE WAS IN HERCULES

Lucy Lawless was born in New Zealand, where her career started on the sketch-comedy series Funny Business. For the next seven years or so, Lawless bounced around, pulling in guest role after guest role but nothing that would jump her into the spotlight.

That changed when she landed the role that started it all for her on the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journey. The show was led by Kevin Sorbo as the titular character. Lucy Lawless was first seen on the show in Season 1 as Lyla, wife of Nemis the Centaur.

Lucy Lawless came back five episodes later in the first season, this time as Xena the warrior princess. Throughout Hercules’ six seasons, Lawless appeared as Xena another nine times. Xena had made such a great impression that a character arc was created for her.

LUCY LAWLESS IS XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS

Xena was so popular on Hercules that a spinoff show was created specifically for Lucy Lawless. In Xena: Warrior Princess, Lawless took on probably her most iconic role.

The series ran for six seasons, 134 episodes, and followed the Warrior Princess as she attempted to redeem herself by fighting for good rather than what she had been known as, the Destroyer of Nations.

During her quest, Lucy Lawless’s Xena meets up with Gabrielle, a woman looking for adventure. Together the two head out to right the wrongs they face. The underlying themes between Xena and Gabrielle would be a big part of Lucy Lawless’s future.

The show was a relative hit at the time. For a number of years, it was one of the top-performing series in syndication, attracting a larger fanbase because of the re-airings.

Lucy Lawless, front and center as a strong (understatement) female character, was a major driving factor for the series being such a fan hit. And critics saw it as well, with Lawless garnering significant praise for her turn in the role.

At a time before we had female superheroes running wild on the big screen, Xena represented something considerably different than what the standard television fare was producing at the time.

SHE APPEARED IN A NUMBER OF SERIES AFTER XENA

Once Xena came to an end, Lawless continued to be seen on the small screen. She made appearances on such TV shows as The Bernie Mac Show, Two and a Half Men, Veronica Mars, and Burn Notice.

She pulled in a recurring role on the hit series Battlestar Galactica and one on the hit comedy Parks and Rec. Lawless was never short of work, always finding a role to suit her.

One interesting aspect of this was that Lucy Lawless, in real life, obviously looks considerably different than her Xena character. This helped differentiate between her most popular character and new roles she would take.

SHE BECOMES A LESBIAN ICON AND HAD SEX SCENES IN SPARTACUS

Lucy Lawless opened eyes in a big way when she took on the role of Lucretia in the Starz! series Spartacus. If you know anything about many of the original Starz! series, you know there is an abundance of sex, sometimes wild sex, and Spartacus did not disappoint nor hold back.

Lucy Lawless was front and center in many of these, including lesbian sex scenes. What may come as a surprise on top of her performing these scenes is that the series was produced by her husband, Rob Tapert (Evil Dead). Lawless followed up Spartacus with Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Lucy Lawless’ inclusion in these sex scenes pretty much confirmed what many fans thought of her character’s relationship on the series Xena. Fans felt that theirs (Xena and Gabrielle) was a lesbian relationship and in a 2003 interview with Lesbian News,

Lawless came out and confirmed that their relationship was definitely gay and added, “they’re married, man.” Her lesbian scenes in Spartacus further cemented her icon status within the gay community.

Lucy Lawless went on to appear in many gay pride events, her support so strong for LGBT rights that she was given a Star 100–Ally of the Year award at the Australian LGBTI Awards ceremony.

LUCY LAWLESS IS A SINGER

Lawless’s talents don’t start and end with acting. She can also sing. Lawless has performed on Broadway, her first role being Rizzo on the musical Grease. She has also recorded two CDs as well as a number of concert DVDs.

These days, she’s not actively producing music or touring, but even having this on her resume is a testament to the actress’s considerable talents.