Juliet Landau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet_Landau

Juliet Rose Landau (born March 30, 1965)[1][2][3][4] is an American actress and ballerina best known for her role as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination. She is also known for co-starring as Loretta King in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

She has appeared in a diverse range of roles. She is active in film, television and theater.

Contents [show] §Early life[edit] Landau was born in Los Angeles to actor parents Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.[5] Her older sister is film producer Susan Landau Finch,[6] and the sisters spent their early childhood in a Tudor style house in West Los Angeles.[7] Her family is Jewish.[8] When Juliet was a toddler, both of her parents were regulars on the original Mission: Impossible TV series.[9]

Landau was a professional ballerina,[citation needed] and her mentor was the actress Susan Peretz.

§Career[edit] Landau co-starred in Ed Wood – a film which also featured her father, Martin – as Loretta King and starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in New Line Cinema's Theodore Rex. She played the role of Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, appearing on Buffy and its spinoff show Angel over the course of six seasons. Steve Vineberg of The New York Times hailed, "The wildly gifted Juliet Landau... plays Dru like an acid-addled cross between Ophelia and Cassandra."[10]

Lead roles in independent films include: The Yellow Wallpaper, Darkness Visible, Hack, Toolbox Murders, Repossessed, Carlo's Wake, Life Among the Cannibals, Ravager, Direct Hit, Citizens and a co-starring turn in Henry Jaglom's Going Shopping.

TV guest appearances include: Millennium, La Femme Nikita, Strong Medicine and a starring role in the Lifetime movie Fatal Reunion. She just completed a project for HBO directed by Jake Scott. She used her skill with dialects by lending her voice to various characters on the popular animated series Justice League Unlimited and Ben 10 as well as the animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight. She has also provided her voice for both BioShock video games.

Landau has received outstanding reviews for her work in the theater. Lead roles include Awake and Sing at The Pittsburgh Public Theater, the world premiere of Failure of Nerve, Uncommon Women and Others, The Pushcart Peddlers, Billy Irish, We're Talking Today Here, the musical How To Steal An Election, the West Coast premiere of Irish Coffee and the world premiere of Murray Shisgal's musical The Songs Of War. She played Natasha in a reading of The Three Sisters that Al Pacino put together at The Actors Studio.[11]

Her first work as director was 2008's Take Flight, a short documentary film about Gary Oldman. It is about Oldman's creative process. He has said, "Juliet Landau is an exceptional talent! I entrusted Juliet to make a documentary film about me and I am thrilled with the results! Take Flight is a special film that shows me in a very different light. I will work with Juliet again without hesitation."[12] She has written the short film, It's Raining Cats and Cats and adapted Andrew Prine's play Cissy into a short as well.[13] She will helm these projects. She portrayed Claire in the British horror film Haunted Echoes, who was directed by Harry Bromley Davenport.[14]

In 2009 Juliet Landau co-wrote two issues of the Angel comic book series for IDW Publishing, in collaboration with Brian Lynch. The issues (#24 and #25 of the series, appearing in August and September 2009) feature Drusilla, the character she played on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. In addition to writing, she contributed numerous ideas and references for both the cover and interior art of the issues. She has stated that she would like to write more comics set in the Buffyverse.[15] She will be writing a 5 part Drusilla miniseries from Dark Horse Comics this year, which is now delayed.[16]

In 2012-13, she starred in the play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea directed by John McNaughton at the Crown City Theater in North Hollywood.[17]

In July 2013 it was announced that Landau had been cast as a new incarnation of the Time Lord Romana in the Big Finish Productions audio dramas Gallifrey VI[18] and Luna Romana,[19] both of which are spin-offs from the TV series Doctor Who. The character of Romana was previously played in Doctor Who (and in the Big Finish audio dramas) by both Lalla Ward and Mary Tamm. In the mythology of the series, Time Lords have the ability to regenerate into new bodies and personalities, hence not only can the role be recast but, as is in the case of Gallifrey VI in which she co-stars with Ward, different incarnations of the same Time Lord may actually meet.

§Personal life[edit] Landau is a member of The Actors Studio and as recently as of 2008 was being mentored by Mike Medavoy.[12]

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