Summer Glau

Summer Glau was born on July 24th 1981, in San Antonio, Texas. She was the first of three daughters, her father is a general contractor and her mother is a schoolteacher. When she was younger, she was a professional ballet dancer. Her ballet training schedule required her to be home schooled by her mother from Grades 3 to 12.

Summer trained and performed as a dancer throughout her teenage years until a serious injury forced her quit. During this time, while visiting friends in Los Angeles she decided to give acting a try. Shortly after, she made the decision to move to LA and began working as an actor.

Her talent was first recognized by Joss Whedon, the creator of the shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Summer appeared in the Angel episode "Waiting in the Wings" as the Prima Ballerina. Joss liked her so much he cast her as River Tam in his new show Firefly.

Unfortunately the show was canceled after only 11 episodes but she was overjoyed when Joss told her that he was going to make a film based version of the show called Serenity (2005). Since then she has appeared on The 4400, Cold Case and CSI.