*Game Of Thrones spoilers ahead, keep reading at your own risk.*
Let’s face it – Cersei Lannister isn’t the most pleasant character on HBO’s popular fantasy series.
She raised the murderous Joffrey (who is now thankfully dead and gone), let wildfire loose in King’s Landing, killing lots of innocent people, and has now beheaded Missandei, one of Daenerys Targaryen’s closest friends.
Then again, compared to some of the other characters – such as Ramsey, who chopped off genitals and played human hunting games – she’s not so bad.
Fans love to hate her, but who is the actress that embodies the fierce yet volatile queen?
Who plays Cersei Lannister in Game Of Thrones and what else has she been in?
Odds are Cersei Lannister will meet a grisly death before the series concludes on 19 May.
The character has been part of Game Of Thrones since the very first episode aired in 2011, and is played by British actress Lena Headey.
Lena shot to A list fame for her portrayal of Cersei, but has been in the industry since the early 90s.
She was born in Bermuda, where her father was stationed as a police officer, but the family moved to Yorkshire when Lena was five years old. Later, in her teens, Lena moved to London, where she was discovered by a casting agent while performing in a show with friends from school.
Lena hasn’t studied acting and was thrown into the deep-end with a role in Waterland, alongside Jeremy Irons in 1992.
Since then, she has taken on a wide variety of characters such as Dr Kathryn Jennings in The Cave, playing a lesbian florist in Imagine Me & You and Jane Austen’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the zombie version of Pride and Prejudice.
Other movie appearances include Mary Sandin in The Purge, Jocelyn in The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones and Julia Knight in Fighting With My Family.
Lena has also played TV roles, such as lead character Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Ava Wigram in the TV movie The Gathering Storm.
The fantasy genre clearly works for her; the Game Of Thrones star has done voice-over work for Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia and Dishonoured, a video game where she voiced Callista Curnow.
What’s next for Lena Headey?
Cersei Lannister’s future was sealed the moment she was added to Arya Stark’s kill list.
After all, the young girl killed the Night King and Cersei should be no big task in comparison.
As for Lena however, the future looks bright.
Most recently, she played Wendy in The Flood (2018) and once Game Of Thrones wraps up, you can look forward to seeing her in Gunpowder Milkshake (to be released in 2020) and Crooks, which is still in pre-production.
But, for now, most of her fans are simply too focused on finding out whether the ominous ‘dracarys’ uttered by Missandei will lead to Cersei’s fiery demise.
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