Summer Glau (; born July 24, 1981) is an American actress best known for her roles in science fiction and fantasy television series: as River Tam in Firefly (2002) and its continuation film Serenity (2005), as Tess Doerner in The 4400 (2005âÂÂ2007), as Cameron in ' (2008âÂÂ2009), and as Isabel Rochev / Ravager in Arrow (2013âÂÂ2014).
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 ancestry.
Glau received a scholarship to a ballet company and was homeschooled from grades 3 to 12 to accommodate her ballet training. In addition to her classical ballet training, she has studied tango and flamenco.
Glau's first television credit was a guest role on a 2002 episode of the television series Angel. In the episode, she was a prima ballerina who danced the titular character Giselle by Adolphe Adam.
Having met director Joss Whedon in Angel, Glau was later cast in Whedon's critically acclaimed but short-lived TV series Firefly as River Tam, a role she later reprised for the show's feature film sequel Serenity. Her portrayal of River Tam, a girl who was intellectually gifted but mentally unstable due to being subject to government experimentation to create an assassins program, was widely praised and garnered her a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006. For her fight scenes in Serenity, she underwent 6 months of rigorous wushu training in Alhambra. In an interview, Glau indicated having previously auditioned for the role of a Power Ranger (White Wild Force Ranger Alyssa Enrilé) in Power Rangers Wild Force but lost to actress Jessica Rey before meeting Whedon.
After Serenity, 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 the high school senior Shelly. She also appeared in the ' episode "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?", and Season 2 of The Unit as Crystal Burns (the girlfriend of Jeremy Erhart from Michigan).
In 2006, Glau played Tess Doerner, a paranoid schizophrenic returnee in Season 2's premiere of The 4400, and became a recurring character from Season 3 onwards. She also starred in the horror comedy film Mammoth and was cast in the ABC Family TV movie The Initiation of Sarah.
In ', a series that debuted in early 2008, Glau played the role of Cameron Phillips, a reprogrammed Terminator infiltration unit sent back by future John Connor to protect John's younger self and his mother Sarah Connor from Skynet. The series' seventh episode, "The Demon Hand", featured several scenes in which Glau (in character as Cameron) dances ballet, including one set to Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor. Glau also played (Cameron's human doppelgänger) in the second-season episodes "Allison from Palmdale" and "". In 2008, she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television for her portrayal of Cameron.
In 2009, Glau guest starred as herself in Episode 17 of Season 2, The Terminator Decoupling, of the CBS situation comedy The Big Bang Theory. In the episode, she encounters Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj during a train ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco where they are going to attend a conference. During the ride Leonard, Howard and Raj squabble about approaching her.
On August 26, 2009, Glau joined the cast of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse for four episodes in Season 2. She portrayed Bennett, the programmer for a rival Dollhouse. She also portrayed the protagonist Lindsey in the 2010 film Deadly Honeymoon and supporting character Maggie in the 2011 film ', which was filmed close to her residence in Boerne, Texas. She also guest starred as Greta in a 2010 episode of the TV series Chuck, reuniting with her Firefly co-star Adam Baldwin.
In 2011, Glau portrayed the leading role of Orwell in NBC's The Cape, a mysterious blogger who assisted the main character in crime fighting activities. On July 11, 2011, Glau was cast on Alphas as Skylar Adams, a recurring alpha with outstanding intellectual ability and mother to Zoe Adams, and a former acquaintance of Dr. Rosen and Nina. Moreover, she voiced Kara Zor-El in the DC Comics original animated movie '.
In 2012, Glau played the main character Christine in the Hallmark film Help for the Holidays, an elf who went on a special assignment to help a family regain their Christmas spirit. In 2013, Glau was a female lead in the horror comedy film Knights of Badassdom, in which she took up larping. During this time, she also had minor guest appearances on the TV series Grey's Anatomy and Hawaii Five-0.
In the CW superhero series Arrow, Glau portrayed the recurring antagonist Isabel Rochev (Ravager) in its second season in 2013. She also guest starred as Olivia Frampton in Season 2 of the black comedy series '.
In 2014, Glau appeared in all 12 episodes of the TV series Sequestered, portraying a juror who seemed to have been involuntarily brought into larger conspiracy.
Glau rejoined her Firefly co-star Nathan Fillion when she guest starred in the web series Con Man (2015) as Martina and in Castle as Kendall Frost, an aspiring private detective who rivaled Fillion's protagonist.
In 2018âÂÂ2019, Glau was cast in the recurring role of Miss Jones on the Netflix crime drama series Wu Assassins. She also provided narration in the Realm audio podcast Ctrl-Alt-Destroy, in which the protagonist was a video game designer who discovers that the game she created has been stolen as part of a top secret project.
Glau has also been featured in the short films Inside the Box and Dead End, as well as in the web series Jeff 1000 (portraying herself as the friend of a robot named Jeff) and The Human Preservation Project.
Since 2014, Glau has been married to Val Morrison, whom she met on the set of Hawaii Five-0. In January 2015, Glau gave birth to her first daughter. She gave birth to her second daughter in October 2017.
Glau is a Christian who was raised Baptist but regularly attended a Catholic church, about which she stated: "It has always given me great strength to go to this church."
Outside of film and TV, Glau has participated in a wide variety of comic conventions across the United States and the world. She has also been an advocate for the science fiction fan community, such as through a promotional video for the Los Angeles Sci-fi World (opened in 2024). She has also supported wind energy in the 175th Anniversary of the Texas Revolution video series directed by Michael Cerny.
In an interview from 2012, Glau has mentioned that one of her favorite films during childhood was Camelot, and that she would be interested in acting in period pieces, such as in those written by Jane Austen.