Claudia Black

Claudia Lee Black was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on October 11, 1972 to two Australian medical academics, Judy and Jules Black. Her family is Jewish. She went to the Anglican Kambala School in Sydney.

She married Jamie in 2004, and together they have two children, Odin Black and Viggo Black. The couple ended their marriage with a divorce in 2016.

Claudia Black appeared in numerous Australian television shows at the beginning of her career. She made her acting debut in 1992 with the role of ‘Sandra’ in the television soap opera ‘Home and Away’. She later made some guest appearances in shows like ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, ‘G.P’, and ‘Police Rescue’ before landing her first regular role in a television show, ‘A Country Practice’. She portrayed the character of ‘Claire Bonacci’ from 1993 to 1994.

In 1996, she landed another regular role on television, this time on TVNZ soap opera ‘City Life’, in which she played the role of ‘Angela Kostapas’. Claudia Black played the very challenging role of an intersex woman named ‘Jill Mayhew’ in the Australian crime TV series ‘Good Guys, Bad Guys’.

In the Australian-American science fiction television series ‘Farscape’, Claudia Black played one of her biggest roles, the character of ‘Aeryn Sun’, a peacekeeper pilot and officer. She was part of the show from 1999 to 2003 and was nominated twice at the Saturn Awards for the Best Actress. She again portrayed the character in 2004 in ‘Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars’, a miniseries based on the same storyline.

After gaining global recognition for her work in the ‘Farscape’ series, Black was signed for another role which would eventually add further to her popularity. She was picked for the role of ‘Vala Mal Doran’ in the Canadian-American military science fiction adventure television series ‘Stargate SG-1’. Black was initially supposed to play the role in just one episode (‘Prometheus Unbound’) in season 8; however, her portrayal of the sexy and mischievous ‘Vala Mal Doran’ made the producers bring her back for more appearances. She became a regular cast member on the show, and along with Michael Shanks, she formed a popular pair loved by the audience. Claudia Black had recently been part of the American limited series ’Containment’ which was based on the Belgian TV series ‘Cordon’. She played the role of ‘Sabine Lommers’ in the series in 2016.

Black has also made her name in voice acting in films and video games. She has played some memorable characters in numerous video games since 2005. Some of her popular characters are ‘Artemis’ in ‘God of War’, ‘Helena’ in ‘Crysis’, ‘Chloe Frazer’ in ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’, and ‘Morrigan’ in ‘Dragon Age: Origins’. Black has also portrayed ‘Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh’ in ‘Mass Effect 2’, ‘Sam Byrne’ in ‘Gears of War 3’, and ‘Matriarch Aethyta’ in ‘Mass Effect 3’.

Black portrayed the character of ‘Pandora’ in the 2002 Australian-American horror film ‘Queen of the Damned’. She later did voice roles in ‘Rango’ (‘Angelique’) and ‘Justice League: Doom’ (‘Cheetah’).