Summer Glau Central

Summer Lyn Glau is a native of San Antonio, Texas and was born on July 24, 1981. Summer’s mother Mari, is a schoolteacher and her father a contractor. She has two sisters, Christie and Kaitlin, both of which are younger.

At the age of 5, Summer began ballet dancing. A shy girl, dancing was an outlet for her to be expressive. Her parents supported her and when Summer won a scholarship to a ballet company her Mother home-schooled her until her graduation so she could spend most of her time dancing. During her teenage years Summer danced at the Majestic Theatre.

Up until a serious foot injury, Summer danced all the time. While taking time to heal her wound, she visited some friends in Los Angeles, California and booked her first job in acting in commercials. Not soon after, Summer made the desicion to move to LA and pursue acting, in addition to still maintaining a steady dancing career. “I danced classical ballet my whole life. That was my destiny; that was my identity. I was known as Summer The Dancer. And I thought that’s what I’d do all my life.”

Glau made her TV debut in 2002 as a Prima ballerina on Angel. The episode was directed by Joss Whedon. The two would grow to have a long career relationship to this day. Summer was cast in Wheden’s Firefly and ultimately landed her big break. She got to showcase her dancing and acting abilities portraying the emotionally fragile, yet intellectually gifted River Tam. Summer trained for a gruelling 9 months prior to the filming. Although the show didn’t have but one season, it became a cult favourite and has a massive fanbase. Summer later reprised her role in the film Serenity (2005).

From 2003-2006 Summer appeared as a guest star in the shows CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Cold Case and the films The Initiation of Sarah, Sleepover, Mammoth and the afore mentioned Serenity.

Summer had a multi-episode arch on the series The Unit and The 4400 throughout 2005-2007. Originally Summer was to play Lily on The 4400 but had scheduling conflicts with Serenity and got a smaller part playing Tess Doerner (8 Episodes).

It was announced in 2007 that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a spin-off show, set after the events in Terminator 2 would come into play. The show follows Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her son John (Thomas Dekkar), trying to stay under-the-radar from the government as they plot to destroy the computer network Skynet in hopes of preventing Armageddon. After premiering in January 2008, the show was the highest-rated new scripted series of the 2007-08 television season. The writers strike of that year halted the show to a short 9 episodes for it’s first season, still the show was renewed for a second season which premiered in August 2008.

T:SCC screenwriters claimed to have wrote the part of Cameron Phillips, a reprogrammed Terminator posing as John’s sister specifically for Summer Glau. The show creators even went as far as to write in Summer’s own dancing skills for the character in episode 7 “The Demon Hand”.

Summer is currently starring in The Sarah Connor Chronicles’s second season and Joss Whedon has taped her yet again for The Serving Girl, a part he wrote just for her which again incorporates her dancing abilities. Currently the project is on hold, pending a time both are free.

Glau currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She spends her free time dancing and watching cooking shows with her boyfriend Daniel Wisler. Daniel and Summer met while playing a couple on The Unit in 2004. She is an animal lover and a supporter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as well as BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre.