Early Life
Lawless was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert in New Zealand, the daughter of Julie Ryan, a teacher, and Frank Ryan, who was a banker and Mount Albert mayor. Lawless was the fifth of seven children, and has five brothers and one sister, and has described her parents and siblings as "this big, sprawling Irish Catholic family." While filming in Ireland for the Discovery Channel in 2004, Lawless told Ireland on Sunday that her father's family originated in Quilty, County Clare, and her great grandfather arrived in New Zealand as a convict.
Lawless appeared in her first musical at the age of 10, and began acting in secondary school. She later said she "used to quite like bulimia", but was able to overcome the illness. Lawless attended The University of Auckland and studied foreign languages for a year, including German, Italian and French, and she also studied opera for three years. After learning that opera required changes in her lifestyle she was not ready to make, she gave up on both and studied violin and jazz instead, and considered becoming a singer. But university studies in opera and languages were abandoned after she decided that opera would mean compromising her own mantra of being the best she could at everything she tried.
At 18, like many young New Zealanders she went on her "OE", traveling through Europe and Australia – where she met future husband Garth Lawless.
Read more about this topic: Lucy Lawless
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