Lucy Lawless

  Lucille Frances Lawless MNZM ( born on 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress and singer. Her most well-known work is her role in the role of Xena in the tv series Xena Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus Blood and Sand and the associated series.Lawless was a regular character as Diane Lewis-Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (2012-2015) as well as as Countess Palatine Ingrid Von Marburg on the WGN America supernatural series Salem (2015). Ruby was also the Starz horror-comedy character on Ash vs Evil Dead (2015). She was the daughter of Julie Ryan (nee Haynes) and Frank Ryan, Mount Albert's mayor. She is the fifth of six siblings (four brothers and one sister). Her family has been described as "this huge expansive Irish Catholic family", and , while filming in Ireland for the Discovery Channel in 2004, revealed to Ireland on Sunday that her father's family came from in Quilty, County Clare. Her first musical debut was at age 10 when she started acting in secondary school. Marist College, Auckland was where she studied languages. She embarked on her "overseas adventure" at the age of 18, traveling around Europe and Australia along with Garth Lawless, her future husband. She was the winner of the 1989 Mrs New Zealand contest at 21. Lawless states that she was affected by bulimia as an infant, but she was able overcome it.