Age, Biography, and Wiki
Lena Headey was born on October 3, 1973, in Hamilton, Bermuda. She is the daughter of Sue and John Headey and has a younger brother. At a young age, her family moved to Somerset, and later to Shelley, West Yorkshire, where she spent much of her childhood. Headey's early interest in acting led to her first roles in school productions. Her breakthrough came after being discovered by an agent, leading to her first professional acting opportunities.
| Occupation | Voice Actress |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 3 October 1973 |
| Age | 51 Years |
| Birth Place | Hamilton, Bermuda |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | Bermuda |
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Lena Headey's current height and weight are not widely published, she is known for her striking presence on screen. Her height is generally reported to be around 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm), though exact measurements may vary.
| Height | 5 feet 5 inches |
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Dating & Relationship Status
As of recent reports, Lena Headey is in a relationship. However, she keeps her personal life relatively private, focusing more on her career and public projects.
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.
Headey played Kitty Brydon, the childhood friend and romantic interest of Mowgli, in Disney's The Jungle Book (1994). James Berardinelli praised the cast's "solid performances" as part of a positive critical reception, and the film found moderate commercial success in theaters. She appeared opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1997 romantic drama Mrs Dalloway, portraying the closest friend of a housewife, who is now wife of a self-made millionnaire and mother of five. She was then cast in the drama Onegin (1999), a film based on the 19th-century Russian novel Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed the fiancée of an aspiring poet and appeared with Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.
In 2002, she appeared as a mousey Victorian lesbian artist with Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart in the mystery drama Possession, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by British author A. S. Byatt, and as the wife of a law-abiding art framer dying of leukemia in the thriller Ripley's Game, adapted from the 1974 novel of the same name. In its review for the latter, Eye for Film noted: "Whilst this is very much a male-centred film, Lena Headey turns in a powerful performance as Jonathan's wife, creating a sense of balance and normality against which other events are contrasted". Headey appeared in the comedy The Actors (2003), opposite Dylan Moran and Michael Caine, portraying the love interest of a struggling actor. She is credited as voice actor for the character Callista in the video game Dishonored.
Headey found much wider recognition when she starred with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's adventure fantasy film The Brothers Grimm (2005) as Angelika, whose woodsman father was transformed into a werewolf by the Evil Queen. She was drawn to the character's "tomboy" nature, about which she said: "She lives and grows up and survives in the forest. Terry and I talked about how her instincts are almost animalistic and she can see 360 degrees around her. She is aware of what is going on. That is how she is grounded. She is of the earth". The Brothers Grimm received mixed reviews and made US$105.3 million worldwide.
In 2005, Headey also starred with actress Piper Perabo in the films The Cave and Imagine Me & You. The horror film The Cave had the actress play a member of a group of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network. While critical response was negative, the film made a profit at the box office. In the romantic dramedy Imagine Me & You, she took on the role of a woman who falls in love at first sight with a newlywed bride who reciprocates her feelings; the newlywed struggles with whether to remain in a passionless marriage to a sweet husband, or pursue her electric connection to Headey's character Luce. The film, which Commonsense Media called "charming", "quirky", and "witty", found a limited release in theaters, but Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle stated that the actress "has a forthright, irresistible appeal and a face and especially a smile that suggest intelligence, integrity, and lots of fun". Perhaps Headey's most known film role came in 2007, when she played Queen Gorgo in Zack Snyder's epic war film 300, based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae within the Persian Wars. Her character has a much larger role in the film than in the comic book, where she appears only in the beginning, and required Headey to film a nude scene. "It's always weird, the thought of taking your clothes off in front of 20 people, and then to have it projected in front of many more", she said in an interview. "I think it was necessary because we only get that scene to establish their relationship. It is a very obvious moment but I think it does it in quite a beautiful way." The film received mixed reviews, but was a box-office success, grossing over US$450 million. In 2007, she also appeared as the stuffy Miss Dickinson in the sixth release of the St. Trinian's film series.
Following the success of 300, Headey reprised her role as Queen Gorgo in 300: Rise of an Empire, which was released in 2014. Like the first film, it received mixed reviews, but was a major commercial success, grossing over US$337 million worldwide. In 2014, she also starred in the fantasy adventure film The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box and the biographical film Low Down, which detailed the life of jazz pianist Joe Albany. In 2015, she played the wife of a federal prosecutor running for office who cannot stop himself from sleeping with high-class escorts in the political thriller Zipper, opposite Patrick Wilson.
She married musician Peter Loughran in May 2007. 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.
| Parents | |
| Husband | Peter Loughran (m. 2007-2013) Marc Menchaca (m. 2022) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Lena Headey's net worth is estimated to be around $15 million as of 2025, reflecting her successful career in film and television . She earns an annual salary ranging between $3 million and $4.1 million . Her salary for the final two seasons of "Game of Thrones" was $1.1 million per episode, contributing significantly to her earnings .
Career, Business, and Investments
Lena Headey's career has been marked by notable roles in both film and television:
- Game of Thrones (2011-2019): Her portrayal of Cersei Lannister is perhaps her most iconic role, earning her significant recognition and financial success.
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009): She played the central character Sarah Connor in this series.
- Film Roles: Notable films include "300," "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," and "The Jungle Book." In addition to acting, Headey is involved in film production, further diversifying her career.
At age 17, Headey performed in a one-off show and afterwards a casting agent took her photo and asked her to audition. She eventually obtained a supporting role in the drama Waterland (1992), in which she had the opportunity to work with more experienced actors. This was followed by a major role in The Clothes in the Wardrobe (1993), again with several acclaimed actors, including Julie Walters, Jeanne Moreau, and Joan Plowright. She also had a small role in the critically acclaimed 1993 drama film The Remains of the Day, which received eight Academy Awards nominations. She appeared in series three of BBC One drama Spender, starring Jimmy Nail, as a teenage tearaway and hit ITV show Soldier Soldier with Robson Green and Jerome Flynn. Her career continued to grow in England through the decade, and she got larger parts in bigger motion pictures. In 1996, she was featured as Collette in Kay Mellor's Band of Gold TV series, before starring in Kavanagh QC (1997) as Natasha Jackson.
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.
Social Network
Lena Headey maintains a presence on social media platforms, engaging with fans and sharing updates about her projects. However, she is known to keep her personal life relatively private.
Headey starred as Sarah Connor in Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a television spin-off of James Cameron's popular Terminator franchise. The show ran for 31 episodes in two seasons, from January 2008 to April 2009. Variety praised "Headey's gritty performance as Sarah —managing to be smart, resourceful and tough, yet melancholy and vulnerable as well". For her performance, she was nominated twice for the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television. In 2008, she starred alongside Matthias Schweighöfer and Joseph Fiennes in The Red Baron, a biographical film of the legendary World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, appeared in Ridley Scott-produced sci-fi drama Tell-Tale, a film based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, and played a radiologist in the horror film The Broken, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. While the three aforementioned films went largely unnoticed by audiences, some critics praised Headey's performance in The Broken, including Kim Koynar, of Cinematical, who wrote that Headey "largely carries the film, and does so quite ably".
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. 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.
Education
Lena Headey began her acting experience at a young age through school productions. Her early start in the industry and continuous involvement have shaped her into the accomplished actress she is today. Formal education details beyond her early acting experiences are not widely documented.
In 2000, Headey played a newly promoted lawyer with no apparent emotional attachments in the romantic comedy Aberdeen, receiving the Silver Iris Award for Best Actress at the 2001 Brussels European Film Festival, and also starred as a troubled college student in the psychological drama Gossip, with Kate Hudson. In 2001's comedy The Parole Officer, Headey took on the role of a police officer, alongside Steve Coogan in his first film role. While the film was warmly received, ViewLondon remarked: "The only disappointment is Lena Headey, who, despite being fantastically sexy (she's given both a nude scene and a 'dressed as a prostitute' scene), smirks her way through the entire film, even at the most inappropriate moments".
In the historical action comedy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Headey appeared as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, with her former Game of Thrones, Century, and The Contractor co-star Charles Dance. Andrew Barker, of Variety, found her to be "excessively diverting" in what he considered a "tolerable, but not handsome enough" film. In 2017, Headey appeared as a "predictably hard-boiled boss" in the crime thriller Thumper, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and provided the voiceover for Mercedes A-Class television advertisement and Morgana in Trollhunters.
