Summer Glau Biography

Summer Lyn Glau (born July 24, 1981) is an American actress best known for playing River Tam in the space western series Firefly and its film sequel Serenity, and Cameron in the science fiction series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Early life

Glau was born in San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up with her two younger sisters Kaitlin and Christie. She is of Scots-Irish and German descent. Her mother is a school teacher and her father a general contractor.

Glau received a scholarship to a ballet company and was home-schooled from grades 3 to 12 to accommodate her ballet training. Glau was classically trained as a ballet dancer and also studied tango and flamenco. After a broken toe ended her dancing career, Glau later moved to Los Angeles in 2002 to pursue a more active acting career.

Career

Glau's first television credit was a guest role as a ballerina on the 2002 episode "Waiting in the Wings" of the television series Angel. There she caught the eye of director Joss Whedon, who later cast her in his critically acclaimed but short-lived TV series Firefly as River Tam, a role she reprised for the show's feature film sequel, Serenity. Glau previously auditioned for the role of a Power Ranger in Power Rangers Wild Force before meeting Whedon.

Glau appeared on the episode "Love Conquers Al" of the TV series Cold Case. She had a small role in the film Sleepover, in which she played a high school senior named Shelly. She also appeared in the CSI episode "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?", and the second season of The Unit; portraying Crystal Burns, the girlfriend of Jeremy Erhart. In 2006, Glau played Tess Doerner, a paranoid schizophrenic returnee in the second season premiere of The 4400 (episode "Wake-Up Call"), and became a recurring character from season 3 onwards. She also starred in the science fiction film Mammoth. Glau was cast in the ABC Family TV movie The Initiation of Sarah.

In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a series that debuted January 13, 2008, Glau played the role of Cameron Phillips, a Terminator infiltration unit sent back to protect John Connor and Sarah Connor from Skynet. The seventh episode of the series, "The Demon Hand", included several scenes in which Glau (in character as Cameron) dances ballet. Glau also guest starred as herself in the 2009 episode "The Terminator Decoupling" from the second season of the CBS situation comedy The Big Bang Theory.

On August 26, 2009, it was confirmed after much speculation that Glau would be joining the cast of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse for at least two episodes in the early part of the show's second season. She portrayed Bennett, the programmer for a rival Dollhouse. On March 12, 2010, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of NBC's The Cape in a leading role. In June 2010, she was confirmed as the female lead in the horror comedy film Knights of Badassdom. On July 11, 2011, Glau was cast on Alphas as Skylar Adams, a recurring alpha and mother to Zoe Adams, and a former acquaintance of Dr. Rosen and Nina. Glau voiced Kara Zor-El in the DC Comics original animated movie Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.

Personal life

Glau has been involved in a number of charities, such as B.C. Women's Hospital & Health Centre Glau is an animal lover and has shown support to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles, where she hand-painted a decorative pet bowl that was later sold on eBay to raise funds. She became a vegetarian in 1995, but in 2005 stated, "by the end of shooting [Serenity] I was eating steaks." Glau has trained in multiple forms of martial arts, including kung fu and kickboxing.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Sleepover	Ticket girl
2005	Serenity	River Tam	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
2006	Mammoth	Jack Abernathy
2006	'	Lindsey Goodwin
2010	Superman/Batman: Apocalypse	Kara Zor-El / Supergirl	Voice only
2010	Deadly Honeymoon	Lindsey Ross Forrest
2011	'	Maggie Moon
2012	Knights of Badassdom	Gwen
2013	Peter Panzerfaust	Wendy	Voice Only

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Angel	Prima Ballerina	Episode: "Waiting in the Wings"
2002"2003	Firefly	River Tam	Main role (14 episodes)
2003	Cold Case	Paige Pratt	Episode: "Love Conquers Al"
2004	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Mandy Cooper	Episode: "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?"
2005"2007	'	Tess Doerner	Recurring role (8 episodes)
2006"2007	'	Crystal Burns	Recurring role (7 episodes)
2008"2009	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	Cameron	Main role (31 episodes)
2009	'	Herself	Episode: "The Terminator Decoupling"
2009"2010	Dollhouse	Bennett Halverson	Recurring role (4 episodes)
2010	Chuck	Greta	Episode: "Chuck Versus the Fear of Death"
2011	'	Jamie Fleming / Orwell	Main role (10 episodes)
2011"2012	Alphas	Skylar Adams	Recurring role (4 episodes)
2012	Grey's Anatomy	Nurse Emily Kovach	Episodes: "If Only You Were Lonely", "One Step Too Far"
2012	Help for the Holidays	Christine Prancer	TV film
2013	Hawaii Five-0	Maggie Hoapili	Episode: "Kekoa"
2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Olivia Frampton	Episode: "Comic-Con Air"
2013"present	Arrow	Isabel Rochev	Recurring role (Season 2)

Awards/Nominations

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Production	Result
2005	SFX Award	Best Actress	Serenity
2006	SyFy Genre Awards	Best Actress/Movie	Serenity
2006	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress	Serenity
2008	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress on Television	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles	(tied with Elizabeth Mitchell)
2008	Scream Award	Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
2008	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actress: Action Adventure	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
2008	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Breakout Female Star	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
2009	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress in Television	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
2009	Teen Choice Award	Choice TV Actress: Action/Adventure	Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles