One of England's fastest-rising actresses, Lena Headey will soon be seen in Liliana Cavani's Ripley's Game, starring opposite John Malkovich (who portrays the talented Mr. Tom Ripley). She has also wrapped filming Matt Brown's romantic Ropewalk (a.k.a. Hanginaround) and Alberto Sciamma's Anazapta (in which she stars opposite Jason Flemyng).
She began her career on the stage, at age 16, in her hometown of Yorkshire. The Yorkshire production of The Coca-Cola Dragon earned the troupe a trip to London to participate in a national theater competition. Spotted by a talent scout in the audience during the competition finals (which she and the play won), she was brought to meet director Stephen Gyllenhaal, who promptly cast her in his film Waterland (starring Jeremy Irons).
Headey has subsequently starred in such features as the Merchant Ivory adaptation of The Remains of the Day, Waris Hussein's The Summer House (a.k.a. The Clothes in the Wardrobe), Stephen Sommers' Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994), Antonia Bird's Face Marleen Gorris' Mrs. Dalloway, Maria Ripoll's Twice Upon a Yesterday, Martha Fiennes' Onegin, Davis Guggenheim's Gossip, Hans Petter Moland's Aberdeen, and John Duigan's The Parole Officer.
Her television work includes an episode of Showtime's The Hunger (directed by Jake Scott); the telefilm MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday (directed by Charles Correll); Steve Barron's NBC miniseries Merlin (as Queen Guinevere); the U.K. telefilms Loved Up (directed by Peter Cattaneo), Devil's Advocate (directed by Adrian Shergold), and Fair Game (directed by Alan Dossor); and the controversial U.K. miniseries Band of Gold. Also for U.K. television, she has appeared in a recurring role on the series Soldier Soldier; and guest-starred on such series as Kavanagh Q.C. and Ballykissangel.
