Claudia Black (Vala Mal Doran)

Name: Claudia Lee Black
Date of Birth: 11th October, 1972
Location of Birth: Sydney, Australia
Siblings: one confirmed sister
Marital Status: married
Favourite Food: Lucky Charms, Robyn Rotondo's Tomato Sauce and Pasta
Hobbies: Traveling abroad, meeting new people, listening to music, rollerblading (if she isn't too chicken to do that on busy streets).
Computer literate: Yes, she owns a G3 laptop
Awards: Nomination for a Saturn Award for Best Actress for her role as Aeryn Sun in 2001, 'Best Actress' Year 2000 by scifi ign 'Best Actress' by TV Zone magazine. Additionally, she won the fan voted Roswell awards for Best Actress for two consecutive years in 2001and 2002 and the SFX magazine Award for Sexiest Actress on Television. In early and late 2002 she was one of Entertainment Weekly's 2002 'IT' girls. © DarkScape

In Depth

The Australian Claudia Black was born on 11th of October in Sydney/New South Wales and raised there. She likes to make no reply to the year of her birth. That caused some irritation about her bithdate that differs from 1962 to 1973. But in October 2000 she admitted to being 28 years old, so she was born in 1972. In her adult life she spent parts of her life on New Zealand and in Europe, especially in London.

On stage Claudia Black could be seen in several plays with different ensembles. She acted in "Spotlight On Women", "Loose Ends", Oscar Wilde's "Portrait Of Dorian Gray" and "Pick Ups" at the Belvoir Street Theatre, one of the most prestigious theatre companies in Sydney where other famous actors as Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett were on stage. Other important appearances on stage were as Jo March in "Little Women" and in "The Worlds Knot" at the Bicentennial Opera. On a Euopean tour she portrayed Portia in Shakespeare's "Merchant Of Venice" and made a great impression on critics. In 1990 she was finalist of the Globe Shakespeare Competition.

In Australia and on New Zealand Claudia Black became famous by acting in serveral TV productions. She played a main character in "City Life" (1996) and recurring character in "A Country Practice". "City Life" was produced on New Zealand and often called the suspenseful "Melrose Place" from down under. It was cancelled after its first season because of moderate ratings. But especially in Europe "City Life" was successful and received awards for Best Drama Series and Best Actor Award of the New Zealand Film & Televsion Awards for Oliver Driver (playing Josh) in 1997. Claudia Black portrayed Angela Kostapas, a talented Greek lawyer. In "A Country Practice" Claudia Black could be seen as nurse Claire Bonacci in episode 1055 to 1058 and in following episodes (1993 - 1994) after a changing of the producer.

Guest appearances in the TV series "G. P." (1988), "Police Rescue" (ep. 3.12, "Double Illusion" as Julia, 1993), "Seven Deadly Sins" (Miniseries, 1993), "Good Guys Bad Guys" (ep. 2.5 "Naughty Bits" as Jill Mayhew, 1997), "Water Rats" (ep. 2.21 "All At Sea" as Beth Williams, 1997) and "Beastmaster" (ep. 2.13 "Wild Child" as Huna, 2000) made her more famous. In "Hercules - The Legendary Journeys" (eps. 3.22 "Atlantis", 1997 and 4.10 "Hercules On Trial" 1998) as well as in "Xena - Warrior Princess" (ep. 5.16 "Lifeblood", 2000) Claudia Black played the amazon warrior Cassandra. A spin-off about the Amazons was planned. Claudia Black there would have continued the part of Cassandra but the series was never realised. Scenes of the shot but never aired pilot called "Amazon High" were put into the episode "Lifeblood".

Claudia Black became internationally renown by acting Aeryn Sun in the science fiction series "Farscape" (1999) by Jim Henson Production. Aeryn Sun is a former military pilot who got expelled from her people and gets hunted through the Uncharted Territories on a living spaceship with former prisoners and a chased human. For her part as Aeryn Sun Claudia Black got nominated as Best Actress for the Saturn Award and won as Best Actress for year 2000 by scifi ign and by TV Zone Magazine.

In 1994 Claudia Black played a main character in the comedy thriller "The Good Fruit". But the movie has not yet been released. A short but impressive appearence of Claudia Black was in the dark science fiction thriller "Pitch Black" (2000) as Sharon "Shazza" Montgomery who was stranded on a strange planet. In 2001 Claudia Black could be seen as Pandora in "Queen Of The Damned", a sequel of "Interview With A Vampire". Unfortunately, almost all her scenes (along with the rest of the Ancient Vampires) ended up on the cutting room floor.

For the sake of filming the mini-series Farscape - The Peacekeeper Wars, Claudia Black cancelled her wedding and moved it to a later date. She is married since 2004 and spent her a two months long honeymoon in Italy.

As of 2006 she has become a regular in Season 10 of Stargate SG-10, playing the part of Vala Mal Doran.