New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless has enthralled audiences around the world in her starring role as the fierce and fearless Xena. Never before has television seen anyone quite like her -- a woman as smart, strong, courageous and committed as any male hero. Lawless describes her character as "a woman with the devil on her shoulder, who is constantly fighting the darker side of her own nature." Devil or angel, Xena has emerged as a pop culture hero and a feminist icon for the '90s.

Proving she can carry a tune as gracefully as a sword, Lawless also starred last fall as Rizzo in the Broadway production of Grease. Her dizzying climb to international stardom has been swift and steep. Last year, she was named by People one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, one of TV's 40 Most Fascinating Stars and one of the 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year.

A native of Mt. Albert, Auckland, New Zealand, Lucy first caught the imagination of television viewers with her portrayal of the statuesque, leather-clad Xena in a three-episode arc of the hit series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Prior to that, she had guest-starred on Hercules as Lyla, Deric the Centaur's courageous young bride, and appeared as the menacing Amazon enforcer Lysia in the two-hour Action Pack telefilm Hercules and the Amazon Women.

Almost six feet tall, with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes, Lawless is the fifth of seven children and the oldest of two girls in her family. Until the age of eight, she was very much a tomboy, following in the footsteps of her four older brothers. She 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, Lucy attended Auckland University for a short time before her passion for adventure took her to Europe. She began traveling through Germany and

Switzerland and when money ran out, headed for Australia and signed on with a gold-mining company in Kalgoorlie, a small town in the outback about 500 miles from Perth. She was then relocated to a tiny mining camp two hours further away from civilization. One of the very few women miners, she did the same grueling work as the men -- digging, mapping and driving trucks.

Lucy married her first husband in Australia and returned to Auckland shortly thereafter, where her 10-year-old daughter, Daisy, was born. With renewed determination to pursue a career in acting, she began doing television commercials before landing her first real acting job at age 20 with a comedy troupe on television called Funny Business. After a variety of guest-starring roles in episodic TV, she moved to Vancouver, Canada, for eight months to study drama at the William Davis Center for Actors Study. When she returned to New Zealand in early 1992, she accepted a job as the co-host for Air New Zealand Holiday, a travel magazine show broadcast in New Zealand and throughout Asia, which took her around the world. She went on to co-host a second season of the show before being cast in Hercules and the Amazon Women.

Though she had practiced yoga for some time, Lawless had no special training in martial arts, sword play or stunt work when she landed the role of Xena. But she did have some experience with horses, having ridden a great deal in her teens. Blessed with a natural aptitude for the difficult physical challenges the role demands, she has since trained with martial arts master Douglas Wong (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) to learn basic kung fu moves and fighting techniques with swords and staffs.

Lawless also has an aptitude for languages, accents and music. She speaks German, French and some Italian, and shifts effortlessly from her native Kiwi accent into the mid-American dialect she uses in the series. A highly trained singer, she studied opera for several years but her real passion is jazz.