Famous for her role as queen Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones, British actress Lena Headey has an estimated net worth of over £1 million.
Lena Headey was born on October 3, 1973 to Sue and John Headey in Hamilton, Bermuda, but when she turned five the Headey family shifted to Somerset and as Headey turned 11, they moved to settle down in Shelley, West Yorkshire.
Her acting skills were first noticed at the Royal National Theatre in a school production when she was 17, which soon led to her getting roles in the movies Waterland (1992), The Summer House (1993) and The Remains of the Day (1993). Headey then starred in Disney’s The Jungle Book (1994).
How did Headey rise to fame?
After appearing in The Grotesque (1995), Devil’s Advocate (1995 TV film), Loved Up (1995 TV film) and Face (1997), she played supporting roles in Mrs Dalloway (1997) and Onegin (1999). In 2000, Headey starred in Aberdeen (2000), a performance that showered plaudits and won her the Silver Iris Award for Best Actress in 2001 at the Brussels European Film Festival.
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In 2005, Headey starred in The Cave and Imagine Me & You, and in The Brothers Grimm. She then starred in the successful war epic 300 (2006) reprising the role in the sequel 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), playing queen Gorgo of Sparta.
Her other film ventures include appearances in The Parole Officer (2001), Possession (2002), St. Trinian’s (2007), The Red Baron (2008) and Tell-Tale (2008), and starring roles in The Broken (2008), Laid to Rest (2009), Dredd (2012), The Purge (2013), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box (2014), Low Down (2014), Zipper (2015) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016).
Her claim to fame came with two Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress on Television for her title role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009), an off-shoot of the Terminator movies.
But Headey’s real rise to renown began on HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011), a series based on the series of books A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Her performance earned her nominations for a Scream Award – Best Fantasy Actress (2011), two Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2014 and 2015) and four SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015). She won the 2012 EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Drama) and the 2015 Empire Hero Award. Headey earns over £200,000 per episode.
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She lent voice to The Super Hero Squad Show (2009-2011), Uncle Grandpa (2014-16) and Danger Mouse (2015), along with the video games Risen (2009), Dishonored (2012) and Game of Thrones (2014).
