Biography Of Lena Headey

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May 23, 2025 - 11:22

May 29, 2025 - 23:24

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Headey in 2019
Born	Lena Kathren Headey 3 October 1973 (age 51) Hamilton, Bermuda
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Peter Loughran (m. 2007; div. 2013) Marc Menchaca (m. 2022)

Lena Kathren Headey

(/ˈliːnə ˈhiːdi/ LEE-nə HEE-dee; born 3 October 1973) is an English actress. She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her portrayal of the Spartan queen in 300 (2006).

Headey made her film debut in the mystery drama Waterland (1992), and appeared in the British television series, The Clothes in the Wardrobe (US: The Summer House) (1993). She continued to work steadily in British and American films and on television, before gaining further recognition with her lead performances in the films The Brothers Grimm (2005) and 300 (2006). Her other film credits include The Remains of the Day (1993), The Jungle Book (1994), Mrs Dalloway (1997), Ripley's Game (2002), Imagine Me & You (2005), Dredd (2012), The Purge (2013), 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), and Fighting with My Family (2019).

Headey starred as Sarah Connor in the science-fiction television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) and had recurring roles as Big Mama in the animated series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018–2020) and as Amelia Hughes in the animated web series Infinity Train (2019–2021). She provided voices for the role-playing video game Risen (2009) and the video game tie-in film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016), as well as the animated series Danger Mouse (2015–2017) and Tales of Arcadia (2017–2018; 2020), and the puppet series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019).

Early life

Headey was born the daughter of Susan (née Brown) and John Headey. Her father, a police officer from Yorkshire, was stationed in Hamilton at the time in the Bermuda Police Service. Headey has one younger brother named Tim. She is of English and Irish descent. When she was five, her family returned to England, initially settling in Somerset. She took ballet lessons as a child. She had her first acting experience when as a pupil at Shelley College; she was noticed at age 17, when performing in a school production at the Royal National Theatre, and was picked for a role in the 1992 film Waterland.

Mini bio

Lena Headey is a Bermudian-British actress. Headey is best known for her role as "Cersei Lannister" in Game of Thrones (2011) (2011-2019) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), Possession (2002), and The Remains of the Day (1993). Headey stars as "Queen Gorgo," a heroic Spartan woman in the period film, 300 (2006), by director Zack Snyder.

Headey was born in Hamilton, Bermuda, to British parents Sue and John Headey. Her father, a Yorkshire police cadet, was stationed in the Bermuda Police Service. She was raised there until age five, when her family returned to England. She was brought up in Yorkshire before moving to London in her teens. Headey had not gone to drama school before she became an actress. At the age of seventeen, Headey's performance in a one-off show in the company of six school friends caught the attention of a casting agent, who took a photo and asked her to audition. Eventually, Headey was cast in Waterland (1992), which became her big-screen debut. She honed her natural acting talent while filming and also took archery classes and horse training. She also took boxing classes in clubs in south London, where a former boxer had been teaching her to spar. During her film career, spanning over 15 years, Headey has shown her range in a variety of roles, playing characters from Amazon-type warriors and action-minded women in The Cave (2005) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), to a lesbian florist in Imagine Me & You (2005).

Headey's film career has taken her all over the world. She was in India for the filming of The Jungle Book (1994), then in St. Petersburg, Russia, for filming Onegin (1999), and in Norway for filming of Aberdeen (2000). In 2005 Headey was filming in Romania and in Mexico, then spent four months in Prague, Czech Republic, where a forest was designed and built for filming The Brothers Grimm (2005), with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. During 2006 Headey was in Canada for the filming of 300 (2006), then went to locations in Bulgaria for shooting The Contractor (2007), and Germany and in Czech Republic for the filming of The Red Baron (2008).

She also played Gina McVey in the horror thriller The Broken (2008), and Elizabeth in Tell Tale (2009). In addition to her film-work, Heady appeared as Sarah Connor in a TV spin-off of the popular "Terminator" film franchise, the FOX's television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008).

Outside of her acting profession, Headey continued taking boxing lessons in London. She is a vegetarian and also remains loyal to yoga, which she discovered during her work in India. She has never been back to her birthplace in Bermuda; she shares her time between her homes in London, England, and Los Angeles, California.

Mainstream success (2011–present)

Beginning in April 2011, Headey portrayed queen regent Cersei Lannister on the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels. She was cast in the role after her friend and eventual co-star, Peter Dinklage, suggested her casting to producers. Her performance as the ruthless queen has received critical acclaim, earning a Scream Award nomination for Best Fantasy Actress for the role in 2011 and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.

After guest-starring in the White Collar episode "Taking Account" in 2011, Headey took on the role of the leader of a drug-dealing gang and the primary villain in the 3D sci-fi action film Dredd (2012), alongside Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby.^[47]^[48]^[49] Her performance was inspired by punk-rock singer Patti Smith, and on the character, Headey asserted: "I think of [Ma-Ma] like an old great white shark who is just waiting for someone bigger and stronger to show up and kill her [...] she's ready for it. In fact, she can't wait for it to happen [...] She's an addict, so she's dead in that way, but that last knock just hasn't come". Despite a positive critical response, the film flopped at the box office, seeing greater success following its home release; it has since been recognised as a cult film.

Headey joined again with Ethan Hawke to star in The Purge (2013), a "micro-budget" horror film, in which she took on the role of the matriarch of a family who find themselves endangered by a gang of murderers during the annual Purge, a night during which all crime, even murder, is temporarily legal. The film was at the number-one position in the United States, grossing over US$36 million over the weekend; it eventually made US$89.3 million worldwide. She next played shadowhunter Jocelyn Fray/Jocelyn Fairchild in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (also 2013), based on the first book of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and opposite Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower. The film flopped at the box office, and as a result, plans for sequels were eventually canceled

Personal life

she married musician Peter Loughran in May 2007. Their son was born in 2010. She has spoken about suffering from postnatal depression following his birth. Headey and Loughran separated in 2011, and she filed for divorce in July 2012, which was finalised in December 2013. On 10 July 2015, Headey gave birth to a daughter with filmmaker Dan Cadan, a childhood friend who had worked with her on his short film The Devil's Wedding. They had separated by June 2019. In October 2022, Headey married American actor Marc Menchaca, whom she had been dating since 2020.

Awards and nominations


Year	Award	Category
2001	Silver Iris Award	Best Actress
2007	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actress: Action Adventure
2008	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress
	Saturn Award	Best Actress on Television
	Scream Award	Best Science Fiction Actress
	SFX Award	Best Television Actress
2009	Saturn Award	Best Actress on Television
2009	Scream Award	Best Science Fiction Actress
2011	Portal Award	Best Actress on Television
	Scream Award	Best Fantasy Actress
	Scream Award	Best Ensemble
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
	Women's Image Network Award	Actress Drama Series
2012	EWwy Award	Best Supporting Actress, Drama
	Golden Nymph Award	Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
	Portal Award	Best Actress on Television
	SFX Award	Best Television Actress
	Saturn Award	Best Actress on Television
2013	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2014	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
	Women's Image Network Award	Actress Drama Series
2015	Empire Award	Empire Hero Award
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2016	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress on Television
2017	Golden Globes	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
	Satellite Award	Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
	Saturn Award	Best Actress on Television
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
2018	Saturn Award	Best Actress on Television
2018	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
2019	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actress on a Television Series
2019	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series