About Summer Glau
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 (2005–2007), as Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), and as Isabel Rochev / Ravager in Arrow (2013–2014). == Early life == Glau was born in San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up with her two younger sisters Kaitlin and Christie. She is of Ulster-Scots 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. == Career == === Early career: 2002–2008 === 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.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.