title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: After years of anticipation, CD Projekt released "Cyberpunk 2077" for PlayStation 4, Stadia, Windows, and Xbox One on 10 December 2020, followed by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 15 February 2022. It received praise from critics for its narrative, setting, and graphics, although some of its gameplay elements received mixed responses, while its themes and representation of transgender characters received some criticism. It was also widely criticized for bugs, particularly in the console versions, which suffered from performance problems; Sony removed it from the PlayStation Store from December 2020 to June 2021 while CD Projekt rectified some of the problems. CD Projekt became subject to investigations and class-action lawsuits for their perceived attempts at downplaying the severity of the technical problems before release; these were ultimately cleared with a settlement of US$1.85 million. By April 2022, the game had sold more than 18 million copies. An expansion, "Phantom Liberty", is set to release in 2023 on PC and ninth generation of video game consoles. A sequel is in development.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: "Cyberpunk 2077" is an action role-playing game played in a first-person perspective as V, a mercenary whose voice, face, hairstyles, body type and modifications, background, and clothing are customisable. Stat categories—Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical, and Cool—are influenced by the character classes that players assume, which are NetRunner (hacking), Techie (machinery), and Solo (combat). V must consult a "ripperdoc" to upgrade and purchase cyberware implants; black markets offer military-grade abilities. The rarity of any given equipment is shown by a coloured tier system. V can take cover, aim, run, jump, double jump, and slide. Melee strikes can be dealt with close-combat weapons. There are three types of ranged weapons, all of which can be customised and modified—Power (standard), Tech (which penetrate walls and enemies), and Smart (with homing bullets). Ranged weapons are equipped to ricochet bullets in a target's direction and slow them down in bullet time. Four types of damage can be inflicted and resisted—Physical, Thermal, EMP, and Chemical. Weapon use increases accuracy and reloading speed, which are manifested in character animations. Gunsmiths repair and upgrade weapons. The game can be completed without killing anyone, with non-lethal options for weapons and cyberware.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The open world metropolis of Night City consists of six regions; the corporate City Centre, immigrant-inhabited Watson, luxurious Westbrook, suburban Heywood, gang-infested Pacifica, and industrial Santo Domingo. Its surrounding area, the Badlands, can also be explored. V navigates these locations on foot and in vehicles, which are subject to either a third- or first-person view. Pedestrians are vulnerable to vehicular collisions. Depending on the location, law enforcement may be alerted if V commits a crime. Radio stations are available to listen to. The full day-night cycle and dynamic weather affect the way non-player characters (NPCs) behave. V owns an apartment and a garage. Night City features non-English-speaking characters, whose languages can be translated with special implants. "Braindance" is a device that allows V to undergo other people's experiences. Branching dialogues enable interaction with NPCs and actions in quests. Experience points are obtained from main quests and fuel the stats; side quests yield "street cred", unlocking skills, vendors, places, and additional quests. Quests are acquired from characters known as Fixers. Throughout the game, V is aided by various companions. Consumables, like soft drinks, are used for healing, and objects can be inspected in V's inventory. Minigames include hacking, boxing, auto racing, martial arts, and shooting ranges. The player's in-game choices can lead to different endings.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Night City is an American megacity in the Free State of North California, controlled by corporations and unassailed by the laws of both country and state. It sees conflict from rampant gang wars and its ruling entities contending for dominance. The city relies on robotics for everyday aspects like waste collection, maintenance, and public transportation. Its visual identity is derived from the four eras it underwent—austere Entropism, colourful Kitsch, imposing Neo-Militarism, and opulent Neo-Kitsch. Homelessness abounds but does not preclude cybernetic modification for the poor, giving rise to cosmetic addiction and consequent violence. These threats are dealt with by the armed force known as Psycho Squad. Trauma Team can be employed for rapid medical services. Because of the constant threat of physical harm, all citizens are allowed to carry firearms in public openly.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The game begins with the selection of one of three lifepaths for the player character V (Gavin Drea or Cherami Leigh): Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo. All three lifepaths involve V starting a new life in Night City with local thug Jackie Welles (Jason Hightower) and having various adventures with a netrunner, T-Bug.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: In 2077, local fixer Dexter DeShawn (Michael-Leon Wooley) hires V and Welles to steal a biochip known as "the Relic" from Arasaka Corporation. They acquire the Relic, but the plan goes awry when they witness the murder of the megacorp's leader Saburo Arasaka (Masane Tsukayama) at the hands of his treacherous son Yorinobu (Hideo Kimura). Yorinobu covers up the murder as poisoning and triggers a security sweep in which Arasaka's netrunners kill T-Bug. V and Welles escape, but Welles is fatally wounded in the process, and the Relic's protective case is damaged, forcing V to insert the biochip into the cyberware in their head.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Furious at the unwanted police attention, DeShawn shoots V in the head and leaves them for dead in a landfill. Upon awakening, V is haunted by the digital ghost of war veteran turned iconic rock star Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves), believed to have died in 2023 during an attempted thermonuclear attack on Arasaka Tower. V learns from their ripperdoc Viktor Vector (Michael Gregory) that DeShawn's bullet triggered resurrection nanotech on the biochip, repairing the damage to V's brain but starting an irreversible process to overwrite their memories with those of Silverhand, leaving V only a few weeks before the process completes. The biochip cannot be removed, so V must find a way to remove Silverhand and survive.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Through reliving Silverhand's memories, V learns that in 2023, Silverhand's then-girlfriend Alt Cunningham (Alix Wilton Regan) had created Soulkiller, an artificial intelligence able to copy netrunners' minds through their neural links. However, the process destroyed the target's brain. Arasaka kidnapped Cunningham and forced her to create their own version of Soulkiller, which would store the minds of its targets in Arasaka's digital fortress, Mikoshi. Silverhand led a rescue effort to save Cunningham, but failed to find her before Arasaka used Soulkiller on her; Silverhand's later thermonuclear attack was a cover to free Alt's consciousness from Arasaka's subnet, but Arasaka captured him and used Soulkiller on him as well.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: By 2077, Arasaka was advertising a "Secure Your Soul" program and conducting secret research into writing a digital copy of a mind into a living human brain, from which the Relic arose. Eventually, V must decide whether to mount an attack on Arasaka Tower to gain physical access to Mikoshi and use Soulkiller to remove Silverhand from their body.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Depending upon player actions throughout the game, V can choose different options to conduct the attack. V can allow Silverhand to stage the attack with his former crew, suppress Silverhand and mount the attack with a network of allies assembled during the game, mount the attack solo, or commit suicide, there and then. Regardless, after successfully using Soulkiller, it is revealed that the damage to V's body is irreversible. Depending on player choice, V either remains in their body with an uncertain life expectancy, or allows Silverhand to take over permanently. He pays his respects to his friends and leaves Night City to start a new life.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: "Cyberpunk 2077" was developed by CD Projekt Red's studios in Warsaw and Kraków, while the Wrocław office devoted about forty people to research and development. It is based on Mike Pondsmith's "Cyberpunk" role-playing game franchise; Pondsmith started consulting on the project in 2012. He also appears in it as a character. The game drew its influences from the 1982 film "Blade Runner", manga and anime series "Ghost in the Shell", and video games "System Shock" (1994) and "Deus Ex" (2000). Pondsmith's follow-up to "Cyberpunk V3.0", "Cyberpunk Red", also made an impact on the lore. The game cost an estimated 1.2 billion Polish złoty (US$) to develop, making it one of the most expensive games ever made.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The game entered pre-production with approximately 50 staff members after CD Projekt Red finished "" (2016). The team was expanded over time, surpassing the size of the team for "" (2015). After the release of "Wild Hunt", the team began to upgrade its REDengine 3 for "Cyberpunk2077", which went on to use the engine's next iteration REDengine 4. CD Projekt Red was granted subsidies of by the Polish government in 2017, which was used to hire team members to work on particular themes such as City Creation and Cinematic Feel. In March 2018, a new studio opened in Wrocław to aid the production. CD Projekt Red partnered with several companies: Digital Scapes to craft additional tools, Nvidia for real time ray tracing, QLOC for quality assurance, and Jali Research to procedurally generate the lip sync for all ten localisations. In 2018, CD Projekt Red stated they had focused on optimization from the start of the project. Originally to include multiplayer features, this feature was later decided to be a post-release addition.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The first-person perspective was chosen to immerse players more than what a third-person perspective would allow. Cutscenes and gameplay were both made in first-person to seamlessly blend together. The game was to feature full nudity, which game director Adam Badowski said encapsulates the theme of transhumanism—"the body is no longer sacrum [sacred]; it's profanum [profane]". However, in the final release, the only depiction of genitalia was in the character creator- prior to actual gameplay. The quest designers focused on enabling players to decide the order in which quests are undertaken. Side quests were often made from unused parts of the main story. The story was made shorter than "The Witcher 3"s as CD Projekt found that many players had not finished that game as a result of its length. Animation systems were remade to better generate muscle movement, motion capture was improved, and environments were created from prefabricated designs. Reused models had their colours and details altered. Feedback from E3 2018 influenced the non-lethal playthrough and removed the male-female option in character customisation, instead basing it on voice and body type.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The script was written in Polish and a separate team translated the dialogue into English. Persons translating into languages other than English were provided with both the original Polish script and English localization. The English localization was the base for all language versions except the Polish one, however, it was not a determinant that had to be translated one-to-one and allowed translators to be creative. Some other versions, such as the Russian one, were also based on the original, if the translators knew Polish. English and Polish dialogues were recorded independently of each other, as were some of the other language versions. Screenwriters took part in the recording of Polish dialogues, providing the actors with additional information about the characters and the context of the situation, helping them put themselves into the role. Dialogues previously recorded in Polish or English could be made available to authors of later versions in order to correctly convey emotions by the actors. Polish and English actors participating in the recordings, where the game's creators were also present, could suggest changes to the dialogues, some of which were recognised.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Night City was designed with the help of urban planners, and its architecture drew on the style of Brutalism. The world is loaded with vertical streaming, a rendering technique that omits objects below and above the player's field of view, rendering only the elements that appear on the screen to save memory and make visible objects look more detailed. By August 2018, the story was completed and could facilitate a complete playthrough. The content was nearly complete by mid-2019, with the rest of development focused largely on polishing. Staff started remote work in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, causing a halt in localisation. Despite the studio's disavowal of mandatory overtime in May and June 2019, "crunch time" was implemented in the final weeks. In October2020, "Cyberpunk2077" was released to manufacturing.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Marcello Gandini's designs from the '80s and '90s shaped most of the vehicles' looks. It features a motorbike from the "Akira" manga and anime film and a car inspired by "" (2015). In July 2018, actor Keanu Reeves was approached for the role of Johnny Silverhand, codenamed Mr Fusion to maintain secrecy. He would lend his likeness to, voice, and do motion capture for the character. Reeves' dialogue amount is second only to that of V. Having first spent fifteen days recording his lines, Reeves was later granted his request that Silverhand's screen presence be doubled. Masane Tsukayama portrays Arasaka Corporation leader Saburo Arasaka in Japanese for all regions and the voice acting is not localized. Musician and producer Grimes voices the frontwoman of Lizzy Wizzy and the Metadwarves.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" composer Marcin Przybyłowicz wrote the score with P. T. Adamczyk and Paul Leonard-Morgan. They created seven and a half hours of music, customising assets for every quest. Genres like rave, intelligent dance music, and industrial had an effect on their approach, infusing the tracks with a '90s feel. Analogue synthesizers were employed as much as could be achieved. In-game radio stations play original songs by numerous licensed artists. Sebastian Stępień served as head writer and creative director until early 2019.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: "Cyberpunk 2077" was announced in May 2012. Trailers for the game were released in January 2013, at E3 2018, and at E3 2019. The game was initially confirmed for Microsoft Windows, with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One announced at E3 2018. Stadia was announced in August 2019.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: At E3 2019, an initial release date of 16 April 2020 was announced. This was delayed to 17 September, then 19 November, and finally 10 December. The developers received death threats over the last delay. The final delay was decided suddenly, with discussions commencing a day before the initial announcement. Due to Polish law, CD Projekt was not allowed to inform every member of the development team due to its large size; around ninety percent were not informed until the last minute. Rockfish Game's "Everspace 2"s early access release and an expansion to Grinding Gear Games's "Path of Exile", scheduled to be released in December 2020, were delayed until the following month in order to avoid competing with "Cyberpunk 2077"s release.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: With E3 2020 cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, CD Projekt's online event Night City Wire showed additional trailers, more gameplay, and making-of footage. Next-generation ports for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were initially scheduled for release in 2021, but were delayed in October 2021, before eventually releasing on February 15, 2022. Owners of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions were able to freely download the game on their respective next-generation models. The delayed standalone multiplayer was announced to launch after 2021.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The collector's edition consists of a custom box, steelbook, figurine depicting a male V, hardcover artbook, metal pin set and keychain, "A Visitor's Guide to Night City", embroidered patches, world compendium, Night City postcards and map, and stickers. The standard edition also contains the compendium, postcards, map, and stickers. Digital items that come with every copy are the soundtrack, art booklet, "Cyberpunk 2020" sourcebook, wallpapers, and "Cyberpunk2077: Your Voice" comic. Purchases through CD Projekt's subsidiary GOG.com include the digital comic "Cyberpunk2077: Big City Dreams".


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: As with "The Witcher 2" and "The Witcher 3", both Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Bandai Namco Entertainment served as physical distributors in North America and Central Europe, Australia, and New Zealand respectively. Spike Chunsoft published the physical PlayStation 4 copies in Japan.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Funko Pops were obtainable starting 16 April 2020. "The World of Cyberpunk2077", a 192-page art book, was published by Dark Horse Books on 29 July. On 9 September, Dark Horse brought out the first issue of a comic book series called "" with writer Cullen Bunn and illustrator Miguel Valderrama. CD Projekt Red held a cosplay competition from June 2019 to October 2020. A card game created alongside publisher CMON Limited, "Cyberpunk2077– Afterlife: The Card Game", was slated for 2020 but has yet to be release, no updating announcements have been made and the card game's future remains uncertain. McFarlane Toys signed a three-year agreement to manufacture action figures. The "Cyberpunk2077"-themed Xbox One X, which includes a digital copy and downloadable content, became the final limited edition of that console. Designed with the same aesthetic were video cards, gaming chairs, energy drinks, sneakers, smartphones exclusive to China, and peripherals. From May 2020, advertising company Agora Group had newspapers, online services, and radio channels doing promotion in Poland. Their subsidiaries carried out publicity outdoors and in movie theatres, using established brands to disseminate information about the game. "", an anime spin-off collaboration co-produced by CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger, premiered on September 13, 2022 on Netflix.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The versions of "Cyberpunk 2077" released in Japan and China were subject to a reduction in the amount of nudity and gore portrayed in order to meet rating agency requirements and censorship laws. A datamine of the game's source code by hackers in February 2021 revealed that content flagged for censorship in China was tagged under "Winnie the Pooh", a reference to an internet meme in which Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping was compared to the titular character.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Prior to the announcement of the game's only planned expansion, "Phantom Liberty", CD Projekt Red released 18 different DLCs for the game which added cosmetics and additional gameplay content. One of the DLCs released included content from the "" anime. On September 6, 2022, CD Projekt Red confirmed that an expansion, entitled "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty", would be released for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 in 2023. It is the only planned expansion for the game, with Reeves reprising his role of Johnny Silverhand. On November 16, 2022, it was confirmed that "Phantom Liberty" will be a paid expansion pack, akin to "" expansions "" and "". A trailer for "Phantom Liberty" was released during The Game Awards 2022 which revealed Idris Elba had joined the project.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: On December 5, 2022, CD Projekt Red confirmed a "Game of the Year" edition of "Cyberpunk 2077" will be released after "Phantom Liberty"; both are slated for a 2023 release. CD Projekt Red president Adam Kiciński commented that "it's the natural order of things", mentioning that after their previous title "The Witcher 3" received the story expansions "Blood and Wine" and "Hearts of Stone", the firm released a "Game of the Year" edition of the title, combining all released DLC, and expects the same to happen with "Cyberpunk 2077".


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The game was highly anticipated before its release. It won over one hundred awards at E3 2018, including Best Game, Best Xbox One Game, Best PC Game, Best RPG, and People's Choice at "IGN", Best Role-Playing Game and Game of the Show at "Game Informer", Best of E3 at "PC Gamer", and Game of the Show at "GamesRadar+". The second trailer was considered one of the best at the expo, although writer William Gibson, credited with pioneering the cyberpunk subgenre, described it as ""GTA" skinned-over with a generic 80s retro-future". Gibson later responded more positively to the first gameplay demo. The first-person perspective, in contrast with "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt"s third-person, was subject to criticism. "Cyberpunk2077" was the most widely discussed game of E3 2019, where it was presented awards for Best of E3 at "GamesRadar+", "PC Gamer", "Rock, Paper, Shotgun", and "Ars Technica", and Best Game, People's Choice, Best PS4 Game, Best Xbox One Game, Best PC Game, and Best RPG at "IGN". The third trailer was lauded with emphasis on Reeves' reveal.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Liana Ruppert, a journalist for "Game Informer" who has photosensitive epilepsy, experienced a grand mal seizure while reviewing the game days before its release. The seizure was triggered by the game's "braindance" sequence, which contains red and white flashing lights that reportedly resemble the patterns produced by medical devices used to intentionally trigger seizures. In response, CD Projekt Red made a public statement and reached out to Ruppert. The company then released a patch to add a warning, and issued a later patch on 11 December to reduce the risk of inducing epileptic symptoms.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Prior to the release of the game, CD Projekt Red provided review copies of "Cyberpunk" to several major outlets. CD Projekt Red issued strict review embargo terms on these review copies, requiring reviewers to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and only allowing for footage provided by the company to be shown in reviews; according to "Wired Magazine" (which did not receive a reviewer copy), violating the NDA could cost around $27,000 per violation. Concern also arose over the fact review copies were issued for the PC version of the game, ensuring that all pre-release reviews related to the PC version of the game, excluding consoles. As a result, this eroded trust from some consumers.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series releases of "Cyberpunk 2077" received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to Metacritic. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game received "mixed or average reviews".


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Critics praised the quality of the story as well as the depth and expansiveness of side quests, immersive atmosphere of the world, visual quality, and freshness of the cyberpunk setting. The game's systems such as crafting, driving mechanics, and combat received a mixed response. Some critics, while acknowledging the game's many strengths, nonetheless criticised its shallow portrayal of the cyberpunk genre, and also described its portrayal of related themes such as anti-capitalism and anarchism as ironic. Others took issue with the portrayal of transgender people, who they felt were fetishized by in-game material but were not given any meaningful role in the narrative.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Along with several post-release patches, following the release of the animated series "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" on Netflix in September 2022, the game's player count on PC boosted to levels last seen with the game's initial release. The million-plus daily player count continued for at least four weeks following the release of "Edgerunners".


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: The release of "Cyberpunk 2077" was a high-profile event and was considered a disastrous launch as a result of the game suffering from numerous bugs and performance issues, particularly on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions. "The Guardian" called the release "a shambles", while "The New York Times" said it was among the most conspicuous disasters in the industry's history, with CD Projekt Red prominently failing to meet expectations for what was anticipated to be the biggest game release of the year. Other gaming industry commentators have described the post-launch reception of "Cyberpunk 2077" as a fall from grace for CD Projekt Red, who had previously enjoyed a fiercely pro-consumer reputation.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Some of the initial reviews that had been based only on the PC version of the game were later updated to add a caveat about the notable difference in performance between this version and its console releases. Because of the game's performance on consoles, CD Projekt issued an apology, particularly for their pre-release secrecy regarding these versions, concluding that unsatisfied consumers could opt for refunds. This was initially followed by multiple reports of players unable to get said refund. CD Projekt Red later stated that they had no specific deals in place with either Microsoft or Sony to facilitate such an action; refunds are dealt with according to standard refund policies. On 17 December 2020, Sony announced that it would offer refunds to customers who had purchased "Cyberpunk 2077" through the PlayStation Store and removed it from the store "until further notice"; once returned to the store in June 2021, the PlayStation Store warned users that "Users continue to experience performance issues with this game. Purchase for use on PS4 systems is not recommended." The Xbox One version of the game remained available for purchase from the online Microsoft store, albeit with a warning about the game's performance issues. Players who bought the game through the Microsoft store were also offered refunds. In the US, GameStop accepted returns of boxed versions of the game even if the box was opened, an exception to the store's usual refund policy.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Although the game's reviews were largely positive, its aggregate score was thought to be disappointing by analysts. CD Projekt SA stock fell by up to 9.4% after the publication of Metacritic's reviews. The reviews aggregation OpenCritic criticised CD Projekt Red for deliberately attempting to misrepresent the game, and not delivering review copies for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, knowing it would receive negative reviews. A class-action lawsuit representing those making investments in CD Projekt during 2020 was filed on 24 December 2020 in California, asserting that the company made fraudulent claims to the state of "Cyberpunk 2077" as to mislead those investors; a second similar class-action suit had also been filed by January 2021. By May 2021, four separate lawsuits against CD Projekt had been filed over "Cyberpunk 2077", and had been subsequently merged into one common action. CD Projekt settled with the investors in December 2021, providing to the group as part of the terms. Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection began an investigation of the game in January 2021, asking CD Projekt for an "explanation regarding problems with the game and actions taken by them". Having previously asked its employees to work 6-day weeks for several final months of the development of the game, the company ditched plans to tie developers' bonuses to review scores, choosing instead to pay out the full bonus regardless.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Jason Schreier of "Bloomberg News" said that, based on discussions with CD Projekt developers, a major reason for the poor performance of "Cyberpunk 2077" on release was underestimating the effort that would be needed. While more than twice as many developers were brought on board to help with the game compared to "The Witcher 3", CD Projekt had only expected the same amount of time to complete the game, so that the bulk of development towards the game only began in late 2016. The expanded scope of "Cyberpunk 2077" including the game's new engine had created difficulties, and while there were more developers, there was less organization of their various functions that further hampered the development, according to Schreier's report. Many developers urged management to hold off on the game's release. Co-CEO Marcin Iwiński issued an open message to players on 13 January 2021, apologizing for the state of the game and the company's plans to correct it. Iwiński stated that the company "underestimated the risk" in bringing a game optimized to run on personal computers over to consoles, particularly the older Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. He specifically faulted the in-game streaming engine that was used to load in assets from storage on the fly as the player moved through the game, which was scaled back to work on the older consoles. While they had tested these versions as they approached release, they had not seen the same issues that players had reported in the released version. He affirmed that the developers were not responsible for the release state of the game, but instead this was a choice made by himself and the other management of the company. Besides working to issue refunds and bring the game to a state to return it to the PlayStation Store, Iwiński outlined a year-long path that will involve multiple patches to bring the older consoles' versions to better performance and then looking to optimizing the game for newer consoles, prior to any further additional content development.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: "Cyberpunk 2077" received eight million pre-orders on all platforms, of which 74% were digital, and it received more pre-orders than "The Witcher3: Wild Hunt"; one third of PC sales were through GOG.com. It was a best-seller on Steam in China. CD Projekt Red has stated that digital preorders for the title alone recouped the game's production cost as well as the game's 2020 marketing cost. According to a CD Projekt investors call, sales saw a drastic decline four days after release owing to the technical issues present. After the launch, analyst estimations for sales over 12 months fell from 30 million to 25.6 million.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: Within twelve hours after its release, the game had over one million concurrent players on Steam. The PlayStation 4 version of "Cyberpunk 2077" sold an estimated 104,600 physical copies during its debut week in Japan, making it the second highest selling retail game of the week in the country. The game passed 13 million copies sold in December 2020. It had the biggest digital game launch of all time, selling digital units and grossing in digital sales . As of September 2022, the game has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: An anime series "" was released in 2022. The series serves as a prequel, takeing place about a year before the events of "Cyberpunk 2077".


title: Cyberpunk 2077

text: A sequel codenamed" Project Orion" was announced in October 2022. It will be developed by CD Projekt North America, which has studios in both Vancouver and Boston. Several core team members working on "Cyberpunk 2077" will be relocated to Boston to work on the game. The game's development will begin following the release of "Phantom Liberty".


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Yahoo! Mail is an email service launched on October 8, 1997, by the American company Yahoo, Inc. The service is free for personal use, with an optional monthly fee for additional features. Business email was previously available with the Yahoo! Small Business brand, before it transitioned to Verizon Small Business Essentials in early 2022. As of January 2020, Yahoo! Mail has 225 million users.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Users are able to access and manage their mailboxes using webmail interface, accessible using a standard web browser. Some accounts also supported the use of standard mail protocols (POP3 and SMTP). Since 2015, users can also connect non-Yahoo e-mail accounts to the webmail client.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: New Yahoo! Mail accounts, and most of the service's accounts, use codice_1 as the email suffix. Previously, users could choose codice_2 or codice_3 as a suffix, or one of several country-specific suffixes. Many countries were available, such as codice_4 in the United Kingdom, codice_5 in France (also used by francophones) and codice_6 in Italy. While these suffixes are discontinued for new accounts, they are preserved for existing accounts. Yahoo! Japan Mail, a separate service, offers both codice_7 and codice_8 as suffixes. Internet service providers using Yahoo! Mail offer their own suffixes for subscribers, with AT&T also offering free accounts to non-subscribers.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Yahoo! made a deal with the online communications company Four11 for co-branded white pages. Marvin Gavin, who worked at Four11 as the director of international business development, said "We always had a bias about being acquired by Yahoo. They were more entrepreneurial than Microsoft. We had a great cultural fit – it made a lot of sense." In the end, Yahoo! acquired Four11 for $96 million. The purpose behind acquiring Four11 was the company's RocketMail webmail service, which launched in 1997. Yahoo! announced the acquisition on October 8, 1997, close to the time that Yahoo! Mail was launched. Yahoo! chose acquisition rather than internal platform development, because, as Healy said, "Hotmail was growing at thousands and thousands users per week. We did an analysis. For us to build, it would have taken four to six months, and by then, so many users would have taken an email account. The speed of the market was critical."


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: The transition to Yahoo! Mail was not easy for many Rocketmail users. On March 21, 2002, Yahoo! eliminated free software client access and introduced the $29.99 per year Mail Forwarding Service. Mary Osako, a Yahoo! Spokeswoman, told CNET, "For-pay services on Yahoo!, originally launched in February 1999, have experienced great acceptance from our base of active registered users, and we expect this adoption to continue to grow."


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: During 2002, the Yahoo! network was gradually redesigned. On July 2, 2002 the company website was changed, and it was announced that Yahoo! Mail and other services would also be redesigned. Along with this new design, new features were to be implemented, including drop-down menus in DHTML, different category tabs, and a new user-customizable color scheme. Yahoo! Network Services senior vice president Geoff Ralston stated that


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On July 9, 2004, Yahoo! acquired Oddpost, a webmail service which simulated a desktop email client. Oddpost had features such as drag-and-drop support, right-click menus, RSS feeds, a preview pane, and increased speed using email caching to shorten response time. Many of the features were incorporated into an updated Yahoo! Mail service.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On April 1, 2004, Google announced its Gmail service with 1 GB of storage, however Gmail's invitation-only accounts kept the other webmail services at the forefront. Most major webmail providers, including Yahoo! Mail, increased their mailbox storage in response. Yahoo! first announced 100 MB of storage for basic accounts and 2 GB of storage for premium users. However, soon Yahoo! Mail increased its free storage quota to 1 GB, before eventually allowing unlimited storage. Yahoo! Mail had free unlimited storage from March 27, 2007, until October 8, 2013.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On September 17, 2010, Yahoo! showed off a new Mail program to reporters. Codenamed "Minty", the 2011 release was announced on September 16, 2010. It included a new interface, enhanced performance, improved Facebook and Twitter integration, the ability to watch YouTube videos straight from email, and improved search. Public beta began on October 26, 2010. In May 2011, the new Yahoo! Mail became the default interface. As the new interface became mandatory for users, some users of Yahoo! Mail reported slow typing speeds, contradicting Yahoo's claims of faster performance. Yahoo! offered no resolution to the problem . Users also missed the ability to paste textual email addresses into the sender box. The new version disabled the use of the "secondary" addresses provided in the previous version. The new interface overrode the browser's right mouse button (making functions such as opening mails in new tab windows unavailable).


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In 2013, Yahoo! redesigned the site and removed several features, such as simultaneously opening multiple emails in tabs, sorting by sender name, and dragging mails to folders. The new email interface was geared to give an improved user-experience for mobile devices, but was criticized for having an inferior desktop interface. Many users objected to the unannounced nature of the changes through an online post asking Yahoo! to bring back mail tabs with one hundred thousand voting and nearly ten thousand commenting. The redesign produced a problem that caused an unknown number of users to lose access to their accounts for several weeks.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In December 2013, Yahoo! Mail suffered a major outage where approximately one million users, one percent of the site's total users, could not access their emails for several days. Then Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer publicly apologized to the site's users.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: China Yahoo! Mail officially announced its shutdown on April 18, 2013. Users were warned that all emails, contacts, and account settings would be inaccessible, unless users migrated to the American version of Yahoo! Mail. Individuals who made China Yahoo! Mail accounts during the Alibaba takeover were required to create new accounts under new usernames.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In January 2014, an undisclosed number of usernames and passwords were released to hackers, following a security breach that Yahoo! believed had occurred through a third-party website. Yahoo! contacted affected users and requested that passwords be changed.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In October 2015, Yahoo! updated the mail service with a "more subtle" redesign, as well as improved mobile features. The same release introduced the Yahoo! Account Key, a smartphone-based replacement for password logins.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In 2017, Yahoo! again redesigned the web interface with a "more minimal" look, and introduced the option to customize it with different color themes and layouts.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: As many as three web interfaces were available at any given time. The traditional "Yahoo! Mail Classic" preserved the availability of their original 1997 interface until July 2013 in North America. A 2005 version included a new Ajax interface, drag-and-drop, improved search, keyboard shortcuts, address auto-completion, and tabs. However, other features were removed, such as column widths and one click delete-move-to-next. In October 2010, Yahoo! released a beta version of Yahoo! Mail, which included improvements to performance, search, and Facebook integration. In May 2011, this became the default interface. Their current Webmail interface was introduced in 2017.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Yahoo! Mail is often used by spammers to provide a "remove me" email address. Often, these addresses are used to verify the recipient's address, thus opening the door for more spam.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Yahoo! does not tolerate this practice and terminates accounts connected with spam-related activities without warning, causing spammers to lose access to any other Yahoo! services connected with their ID under the Terms of Service. Additionally, Yahoo! stresses that its servers are based in California and any spam-related activity which uses its servers could potentially violate that state's anti-spam laws.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In February 2006, Yahoo! announced its decision (along with AOL) to give some organizations the option to "certify" mail by paying up to one cent for each outgoing message, allowing the mail in question to bypass inbound spam filters.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In order to prevent abuse, in 2002 Yahoo! Mail activated filters which changed certain words (that could trigger unwanted JavaScript events) and word fragments into other words. "mocha" was changed to "espresso", "expression" became "statement", and "eval" (short for "evaluation") became "review". This resulted in many unintended corrections, such as "prevent" (prevalent), "revalidation" (evaluation) and "media review" (medieval).


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: When asked about these changes, Yahoo! explained that the changed words were common terms used in there privacy dashboard and were blacklisted to prevent hackers from sending damaging commands via the program's HTML function. Starting before February 7, 2006, Yahoo! Mail ended the practice, and began to add an underscore as a prefix to certain suspicious words and word fragments.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: Incoming mail to Yahoo! addresses can be subjected to deferred delivery as part of Yahoo's incoming spam controls. This can delay delivery of mail sent to Yahoo! addresses without the sender or recipients being aware of it. The deferral is typically of short duration, but may extend up to several hours. Yahoo! does not specifically document this policy in detail, although some information is available.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In 2004, Yahoo's Hong Kong office provided technical information to the Chinese authorities about the account of journalist Shi Tao, who was subsequently sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for "leaking state secrets". Yahoo! was criticized by Reporters Without Borders for acting as a "police informant" to increase its profits. In August 2007, the United States Congress began an investigation into Yahoo's handling of the case. Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang testified before Congress. On November 6, 2007, the congressional panel criticized Yahoo! for not giving full details to the House Foreign Affairs Committee the previous year, stating it had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive". Representative Tom Lantos described its executives as moral "pygmies". Yang stated that Yahoo! no longer controlled its Chinese operations, and was collaborating with human rights groups to formulate ethical code for technology companies.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In a February 2006 hearing, Yahoo! executives swore that they had received no information about the investigation. Several months later, it was discovered that the document provided to Yahoo! China on April 22, 2004, by the Beijing State Security Bureau stated that "Your office is in possession of the following items relating to a case of suspected illegal provision of state secrets to foreign entities."


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On November 13, 2007, Yahoo! settled with Shi for an undisclosed sum. Shi was released from prison in September 2013.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On February 20, 2006, it was revealed that Yahoo! Mail was banning the word "Allah" in email usernames, both separately and as part of a user name such as codice_9. Shortly after the news of the ban, it was lifted on February 23, 2006. Along with this action, Yahoo! also made the following statement:


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In November 2012, an exploit for Yahoo! Mail was sold for $700 by an Egyptian hacker, allowing hijackers to hack Yahoo! Mail user accounts and redirect users to a malicious website. The attack used cross-site scripting which let hackers steal cookies. In January 2013, hacker and security researcher Shahin Ramezany pointed out another DOM-based XSS loophole that placed 400 million users at risk.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In 2013, Yahoo! deleted accounts that hadn't been logged into for more than 12 months and gave those names to other users. This included accounts that had set up email forwarding to other accounts, who didn't notice and act upon the message to preserve their account. Spillover from this action resulted in some users losing access to accounts on other services as their email resets were no longer forwarded to them, but to the new owner of their former account.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: From 2007, Yahoo! was the email service used by New Zealand Telecom, which came under criticism in early 2013 following a spam and phishing attack that was described as the biggest to have ever hit the country. Telecom and Yahoo! automatically reset "about 60,000" users' passwords. In April, Telecom announced that despite the issue, it would retain Yahoo! as an email provider.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: On October 3, 2017, Yahoo! reported that all Yahoo! user accounts, approximately 3 billion, were affected by the previously announced August 2013 theft of accounts. This information updates the December 14, 2016, announcement that more than 1 billion user accounts were hacked in a breach that had occurred back in 2013. Earlier that year in September, Yahoo! announced that an additional 500 million user accounts had been breached in 2014. The company was said to have discovered about the breach that affected hundreds of millions of accounts years before their initial announcement.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: The contents of Yahoo! Mail messages are scanned for the purposes of targeted advertising, in contrast to its main competitors Gmail (which ended the practice in late 2017) and Outlook.com (which did not employ the practice).


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: In 2015, Reuters reported that Yahoo! has implemented a functionality to scan all incoming emails for specific keywords and share email content in real time with the US National Security Agency.


title: Yahoo! Mail

text: The mobile app for Yahoo! Mail can be downloaded from the App Store for iOS, and the Google Play Store for Android. Both versions of the app perform the same function, but are tailored to the mobile device's operating system. Some characteristics include replying to a message by opening a notification and separately archiving, deleting and starring notifications. It is available in several languages.


title: King Richard (film)

text: King Richard is a 2021 American biographical sports drama film directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Zach Baylin. The film stars Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams (both of whom served as executive producers on the film), with Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn, and Jon Bernthal in supporting roles.


title: King Richard (film)

text: It premiered at the 48th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021, and was theatrically released on November 19, 2021, by Warner Bros. Pictures and on the HBO Max streaming service. It was a box-office bomb, grossing $39 million against a budget of $50 million, but received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the screenplay and the performances of Smith, Ellis, and Sidney.


title: King Richard (film)

text: It was named one of the ten best films of the year by both the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review. It earned six nominations at the 94th Academy Awards including Best Picture and won Best Actor for Smith.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Richard Williams lives in Compton, California, with his wife Brandy, his three step-daughters, and his two daughters, Venus and Serena. Richard aspires to turn Venus and Serena into professional tennis players; he has prepared a plan for success since before they were born. Richard and Brandy coach Venus and Serena on a daily basis, while also working as a security guard and a nurse, respectively. Richard works tirelessly to find a professional coach for the girls, creating brochures and videotapes to advertise their skills, but has not had success.


title: King Richard (film)

text: One day, Richard takes the girls to see coach Paul Cohen, who is in the middle of practicing with John McEnroe and Pete Sampras. Despite his initial reservations, he agrees to watch the girls practice, and is impressed. However, the Williamses cannot afford professional coaching, and Paul refuses to coach both girls for free; he selects Venus to receive his coaching, while Serena continues to practice with Brandy. Paul encourages Venus to participate in juniors tournaments. She quickly finds success, but Richard stresses to Venus and her sisters that they should remain humble despite their success. At one of Venus's tournaments, Serena also signs up to play, unbeknownst to Richard. As both girls continue to succeed, the family are treated as outsiders among the predominantly white, upper-class competition. Richard meets with high-profile agents, but, fearing that his daughters will be taken advantage of, pulls them out of the junior circuit entirely. Paul warns him that his decision will destroy the girls’ chances to turn pro, but Richard stands firm, firing Paul as a coach.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Coach Rick Macci travels to California to see the girls play. Impressed, he takes the girls on, and the family relocates to Florida to train at his facility. Richard surprises Rick by reiterating that the girls will not play juniors, instead training and attending school like normal little girls. In the ensuing three years, questions arise from the media and from Rick about Richard's strategy with the girls and his desire for media exposure. Venus tells Rick that she wants to turn pro. Richard reluctantly agrees, but later reneges, worrying that she will suffer a similar fate to Rick's pupil Jennifer Capriati, who is allegedly suffering from burnout and has been arrested for drug possession. The decision strains Richard's relationships with Venus, Brandy, and Rick. After an argument with Brandy, he reconciles with Venus, agreeing to let her play in the upcoming Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California. Before the tournament, the family meets with a Nike executive, who offers them a major sponsorship deal worth 3 million dollars. Rick urges them to accept, but the family collectively agrees to decline, believing that once Venus begins to play she will attract more lucrative offers.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Venus initially struggles in her first professional match against Shaun Stafford, but eventually triumphs. She comes in as a heavy underdog in her next match against top-seeded Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Venus takes the first set and leads in the second before Vicario takes an extended bathroom break, an apparent act of gamesmanship. Sánchez Vicario recovers to win the second set and the match. Richard and Brandy comfort a dejected Venus, telling her to be proud. As the family leaves the stadium, a large crowd of supporters is waiting to cheer her on, and Rick tells Richard that several major shoe companies are anxious to meet with Venus.


title: King Richard (film)

text: An epilogue reveals that nine months later, at the age of 15 Venus would sign a contract with Reebok for $12 million (). She would go on to win Wimbledon five times and become the first African American woman to be ranked number one in the world during the Open Era. Serena, who joined Venus as a professional two years later, would become a 23-time Grand Slam champion and considered by many to be the greatest female player in tennis history.


title: King Richard (film)

text: The project was announced in March 2019 with Will Smith set to play Williams, from Zach Baylin's screenplay. Warner Bros. was the successful bidder for the film. Reinaldo Marcus Green signed as director in June.


title: King Richard (film)

text: In January 2020, Demi Singleton and Saniyya Sidney were cast as Serena and Venus, and Aunjanue Ellis as their mother Oracene Price. Jon Bernthal also entered negotiations to play Rick Macci. In February, Liev Schreiber and Susie Abromeit (uncredited in the final film) joined the cast; and in March, Dylan McDermott, Katrina Begin and Judith Chapman.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Principal photography began in January 2020 in Los Angeles. According to the California Film Commission, the production spent $35.6 million in the state, with $7.5 million returned in tax credits. In March 2020, filming was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, Tony Goldwyn joined the cast, replacing Schreiber, who dropped out due to a scheduling conflict as a result of the pandemic. Filming resumed later that month.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Will Smith reportedly received $40 million for his role. When production concluded, he reportedly gave his co-stars "a nice bonus" via checks, due to the decision to release the film in theatres and on HBO Max simultaneously, on top of the compensation already received from the studio.


title: King Richard (film)

text: The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2021, and was released on November 19, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max. It was previously scheduled to be released on November 25, 2020, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was chosen to close the AFI Fest on November 14, 2021; that same day, it closed the New Orleans Film Festival's live screenings. By the end of its run, it will have also screened at film festivals in London, Chicago, Savannah, Miami, Indianapolis, Denver, Middleburg, Philadelphia, Sydney, Toruń, and Morelia. The film will also open the 25th American Black Film Festival (ABFF), with president and general manager Nicole Friday describing "King Richard" as "a film that is a touchstone of ABFF's legacy of showcasing extraordinary Black talent and inspiring storytelling reflecting the brilliance of diversity in Hollywood."


title: King Richard (film)

text: The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD February 8, 2022 by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, with the 4K Ultra HD release through Warner Archive Collection on the same date.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Samba TV reported to "Deadline Hollywood" that the film was streamed by 707,000 U.S. households on HBO Max in its first 3 days of release on the platform. In addition, it stated that 59% of the viewers were female and 54% African Americans. HBO Max Executive Vice President and General Manager Andy Forssell praised the film for being watched without interruptions unlike other day-and-date titles, while Warner Bros. Pictures Chairman and Chief Content Officer Toby Emmerich stated that the company was pleased with the film's initial streaming performance. It was streamed by nearly 2 million U.S. households by the end of its first 30 days on HBO Max. By March 20, the film had been streamed in 2.6 million households in the United States, including 403,000 since the Oscar nomination announcements on February 8.


title: King Richard (film)

text: , "King Richard" has grossed $15.1million in the United States and Canada, and $24.3million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $39.4million.


title: King Richard (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside "", and was projected to gross $8–10 million from 3,250 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.9 million on its first day, and went on to debut to $5.7 million. The low figure was attributed to the 145 minute runtime, as well as the film's availability on HBO Max. The film made $4.8 million over the five-day Thanksgiving frame, including $3.3 million (-33%) in its second weekend, finishing seventh. In its third weekend, the film earned $1.2 million, finishing ninth. "King Richard" dropped out of the box office top ten in its fourth weekend, earning at least half a million dollars and finishing twelfth.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Both Venus and Serena are listed as executive producers on the film, a title they approved only after viewing the finished product. Serena said: "I think it was a great opportunity to see how amazing African-American fathers are. A lot of black men aren't seen in that light. And a lot of people think that my dad was a different character. He wanted us to have fun first over anything. That's the thing that I loved most." According to Serena and Venus, the film is as true to reality "as possible."


title: King Richard (film)

text: On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it a 94% positive score, with 89% saying they would definitely recommend it.


title: King Richard (film)

text: Kevin Maher of "The Times" gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "A towering turn from Will Smith, his best since "Ali" and one of the year's great screen performances, defines nearly every frame of this film." Justin Chang of the "Los Angeles Times" described the film as "an engrossing family drama that doubles as a sharp rethink of how a family operates within the overlapping, often overbearing spheres of race, class, sports and celebrity." Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" criticized the film's length, but said that it was "a sports movie that transcends itself without losing track of itself." Wendy Ide of "The Guardian" gave the film 4/5 stars, describing it as a "crowd-pleasing biopic" and writing: "Smith is excellent, fully inhabiting the character in one of the only roles to date that has required him to fully shed his habitual gloss of Will Smith charm." Clarisse Loughrey of "The Independent" also praised Smith's performance, writing: "It's one of those impressive fusions between actor and character, which all comes across so effortlessly onscreen, but gives "King Richard" the lifeblood it needs to triumph as a film." K. Austin Collins of "Rolling Stone" wrote: "The movie's brightest-burning idea, and it is sincerely moving, is that Richard, for his flaws, does what he does on behalf of the young black women he's raising. This rings true in real life and in fiction."


title: King Richard (film)

text: Allegra Frank of "Slate" was more critical of the film, writing: "Venus and Serena Williams are the names we rightly remember, but "King Richard" remains fixated on the male bravado that pushed for them to get their names out there in the first place." Kyle Smith of "National Review" wrote that the film "makes the sororal tennis champs seem almost incidental to their own rise to greatness." Jesse Hassenger of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a grade of C+, writing that it "keeps enough of Richard's messy past off screen to feel like a hagiography with a few concessions, rather than a true warts-and-all portrait."


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard's stand-up comedy tours have included "Live at the Ambassadors" (1993), "Definite Article" (1996), "Glorious" (1997), "Dress to Kill" (1998), "Circle" (2000), "Stripped" (2009), "Force Majeure" (2013) and, most recently, "Wunderbar" (2022). She starred in the 2007 television series "The Riches", and has appeared in numerous films, including "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen", "Shadow of the Vampire", "The Cat's Meow" and "Valkyrie".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard has also worked as a voice actor on films such as "Five Children and It", "", "Abominable" and the Netflix original series "Green Eggs and Ham". Among various accolades, she won two Primetime Emmys for "Dress to Kill" and was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway performance in "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2009, Izzard completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief, despite having no history of long-distance running. In 2016, she ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela, raising £1.35 million. In addition to her native English, she regularly performs stand-up in Arabic, French, German, Russian, and Spanish, and is an active supporter of Europeanism and the European Union.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: A dedicated Labour Party activist, she twice ran unsuccessfully for the party's National Executive Committee but temporarily joined as runner-up after Christine Shawcroft resigned in March 2018. In 2022, Izzard attempted to become the party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Central, but was not selected in the members' ballot.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Edward John Izzard was born in Aden (then in Aden Colony and now in Yemen) on 7 February 1962, to English parents Dorothy Ella Izzard (1927–1968) and Harold John Michael Izzard (1928–2018). Her surname is of French Huguenot origin. Her mother was a midwife and nurse, while her father was an accountant who was working in Aden for British Petroleum at the time of her birth. She has a brother named Mark, who is two years older. When Izzard was a year old, the family moved to Northern Ireland and settled in Bangor, where they lived until Izzard was five. The family then moved to Wales, where they lived in Skewen.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard was six when her mother died of cancer. She and Mark built a model railway to occupy their time while their mother was ill, which was later donated to Bexhill Museum in 2016. Following the death, Izzard attended the independent St John's School in Newton, St Bede's Prep School in Eastbourne, and Eastbourne College. She has said that she knew she was transgender at the age of four, after watching a boy being forced to wear a dress by his sisters, and knew she wanted to be an actor at the age of seven. She studied drama at the University of Sheffield.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard began to toy with comedy while at university with her friend Rob Ballard. The two took their act to the streets, often in the Covent Garden district of London. After splitting with Ballard, she spent a great deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States. She says that she developed her comedic voice by talking to the audience while doing solo escape acts. She then moved her act to the stand-up comedy venues of Britain, performing her routine for the first time at the Banana Cabaret in London's Balham area.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 1987, Izzard made her first stage appearance at the Comedy Store in London. She refined her comedy material throughout the 1980s began earning recognition through improvisation in the early 1990s, in part at her own club, Raging Bull in Soho. Her breakthrough came in 1991 after she performed her "raised by wolves" routine on the televised "Hysteria 3" AIDS benefit.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2000, for her comedy special "Dress to Kill", Izzard won two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program and Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program, while the special was nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard is fluent in French and has performed stand-up shows in the language; since 2014, she has started to perform in Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish, languages that she did not previously speak.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 1994, Izzard made her West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at London's Comedy Theatre. The success of that role led to a second starring role, in David Beaird's black comedy "900 Oneonta". In 1995, she portrayed the title character in Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 1998, Izzard appeared briefly on stage with Monty Python in "The American Film Institute's Tribute to Monty Python" (also referred to as "Monty Python Live at Aspen"). As part of an inside joke, she walked on stage with the five surviving Pythons and was summarily escorted off by Eric Idle and Michael Palin when attempting to participate in a discussion about how the group got together. In July 2014, she appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show "Monty Python Live (Mostly)" as the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: She portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play "Lenny". In 2001, she replaced Clive Owen in Peter Nichols' 1967 play "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" at the Comedy Theatre. Izzard and Victoria Hamilton repeated their lead roles when the show was brought to Broadway in 2003 in the Roundabout Theatre Company production. The revival received four Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Leading Actor, and Best Leading Actress for its stars Izzard and Hamilton in their Broadway debuts, and Best Direction for Laurence Boswell. In June 2010, she replaced James Spader in the role of Jack Lawson in David Mamet's play "Race" on Broadway.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard has appeared in numerous films, starting with 1996's "The Secret Agent", and has appeared as several real-life individuals, including Charlie Chaplin in "The Cat's Meow", actor Gustav von Wangenheim in "Shadow of the Vampire," General Erich Fellgiebel in "Valkyrie" and wartime pioneer of radar Robert Watson-Watt in the BBC drama film "Castles in the Sky". Other roles have included Mr Kite in "Across the Universe", Lussurioso in "Revengers Tragedy" and criminal expert Roman Nagel in "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen". Her voice work has included the titular "It" in "Five Children and It", Nigel in "The Wild" and the mouse warrior Reepicheep in "". Izzard declined to reprise the role as Reepicheep, a role understudied by Simon Pegg in "". She has stated that she felt she learned to act while working on the film "Circus".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2009, Izzard was the subject of Sarah Townsend's documentary "Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story", which addresses BBC's Watchdog reporting of "recycling material from an old tour".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: She appeared in the 2009 BBC science fiction miniseries "The Day of the Triffids", based on the 1951 novel, alongside Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and Brian Cox. She played Dr. Hatteras, a skeptical psychology professor, in the Showtime series "United States of Tara" and appeared in six episodes of the 2013–15 American psychological horror television series "Hannibal" as Dr. Abel Gideon. In 2021, she appeared in the television series "The Lost Symbol" based on Dan Brown's 2009 novel of the same name.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Izzard presented the medals to the athletes who had won the 800m T54 race, including gold medalist David Weir.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: She has appeared on a number of episodes of BBC One's "Have I Got News for You", and as a guest on "The Daily Show". In 2017, she read excerpts from her autobiography "Believe Me" for BBC Radio 4's "Book of the Week".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: On 27 July 2009, with only 5 weeks' training and no significant prior running experience, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief. She ran from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London, carrying the flag of the country—England, Scotland, or Wales—in which she was running. In Northern Ireland, she carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove. The blog "Eddie Iz Running" documented the 43 marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totalling more than 1,100 miles), ending on 15 September 2009. Izzard received a special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for these achievements. In March 2010, she took part in the Sport Relief Mile event.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: On 16 February 2016, the BBC announced that Izzard would attempt to run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa for Sport Relief. The significance of the number 27 came from the number of years Nelson Mandela was held in prison. In total, she would aim to run more than 700 miles in temperatures of up to 40 °C. Izzard had attempted such a project in South Africa in 2012, but withdrew due to health concerns. She completed the first marathon on 23 February 2016, completing the marathon challenge on 20 March 2016 at the statue of Mandela in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Because she had spent a day in hospital, she had to run two consecutive marathons on this last day. She raised more than £1.35M for Sport Relief. A BBC documentary detailing the feat was broadcast on 28 March.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: On 8 December 2020, Izzard announced that she would attempt to run 31 marathons, and perform 31 stand-up gigs, in the 31 days of January 2021 to raise money for a range of charities including Fareshare, Walking With The Wounded, Care International, United to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Covenant House. The series of marathons raised in excess of £275,000.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard is a vocal supporter of Europeanism and European integration, and has campaigned in support of the European Union. In May 2005, she appeared on the BBC's political debate show "Question Time", describing herself as a "British-European", comparing this with other cultural identities such as "African-American". As part of her campaigning, Izzard was one of the first people to spend a euro in London. This pan-European approach has influenced her work, regularly performing in French and occasionally in German. On a June 2017 episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher", she claimed to be working in English, French, German, and Spanish.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard campaigned in favour of replacing first-past-the-post with the alternative vote as a system for electing MPs in a 2011 referendum and is a supporter of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform. She is also a proponent of British republicanism, believing that the UK should have a democratically elected head of state instead of a monarchy. She has stated that she is a social democrat, but not a socialist. During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Izzard led a campaign encouraging Scottish people not to vote for independence, and said the rest of the UK would feel a "deep sense of loss" if Scotland were to leave.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard campaigned unsuccessfully against the closure of the departments of Drama and Languages, Linguistics and Translation at the University of East Anglia, although the department of Drama was later reprieved.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard joined the Labour Party in 1995. She was named on a list of the biggest private donors to the party in 1998. In 2008, she donated nearly £10,000 to it. She appeared in party political broadcasts for the Labour Party in the run-up to the 2005 general election and 2009 European election, as well as a 2010 election video entitled "Brilliant Britain". During the 2015 general election, she attended a rally with fellow comedian Ben Elton and actor Sally Lindsay. Expressing support for Labour in the 2017 general election, she said that the then-leader of the party Jeremy Corbyn "believes in what he says".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: At various times, Izzard said she would run for Mayor of London in 2020. When asked on the comedy panel show "The Last Leg" why she would be elected, Izzard replied, "Boris Johnson." However, she was not a candidate for the delayed 2021 London mayoral election. She unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in 2016 and 2018. After Christine Shawcroft resigned in March 2018, Izzard replaced her as the next runner-up, but failed to secure re-election that summer.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: On 25 August 2022, Izzard said in an interview on BBC Radio Sheffield that she would like to ask the local Constituency Labour Party to stand in Sheffield Central, replacing the incumbent MP Paul Blomfield, who is standing down at the next election. Local reaction, according to the "Sheffield Star" newspaper, was mixed. She launched her election campaign on 11 October. On 5 December, it was reported that a local Sheffield City councillor had been selected as the party's candidate for the safe seat, with Izzard coming second in the members' vote.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard uses a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics, saying in a 2004 interview with "The Guardian" that "it's the oral tradition [...] human beings have been doing it for thousands of years". Her bent towards the surreal went so far as to produce a sitcom called "Cows" in 1997 for Channel 4, a live-action comedy with actors dressed in cow suits. She has cited Monty Python as her biggest influence, and Python member John Cleese once referred to her as "the lost Python".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: During the 2008 "Stripped" tour, Izzard said she realised she was an atheist. "I was warming the material up in New York, where one night, literally on stage, I realised I didn't believe in God at all. I just didn't think there was anyone upstairs." She has since described herself as a spiritual atheist, saying, "I don't believe in the guy upstairs, I believe in us."


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard keeps her romantic life private, citing the wishes of her companions not wanting to become content for her show. However, she once dated Irish singer Sarah Townsend, who later created the documentary "Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story", and whom Izzard first met while running a Fringe venue at the Edinburgh Festival in 1989.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard supports Crystal Palace FC, and became an associate director at the club on 16 July 2012. She is also an accomplished train modeller.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: Izzard is genderfluid and calls herself "somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish". She uses the word "transgender," as an umbrella term. When asked in 2019 what pronouns she preferred, Izzard responded, "either 'he' or 'she and explained, "If I am in boy mode, then 'he', or girl mode, 'she'". In 2020, she requested "she/her" pronouns for an appearance on the TV show "Portrait Artist of the Year" and said she wants "to be based in girl mode from now on".


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In the past, Izzard identified as a transvestite, and has also called herself "a lesbian trapped in a man's body" and "a complete boy plus half girl". According to her memoir "Believe Me", she first cross-dressed in public at the age of 23 with the help of a lesbian friend, an experience which ended in a verbal confrontation with three 13-year-old girls who had followed Izzard home from a public toilet.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: She started to publicly identify as transvestite in venues such as the Edinburgh Festival as early as 1992. She states that the way she dresses is neither part of her performance, nor a sexual fetish: "I don't call it drag; I don't even call it cross-dressing. It's just wearing a dress. It's not about artifice. It's about me just expressing myself." She remarks in "Unrepeatable", "Women wear what they want and so do I." She has expressed a personal conviction that being transgender is caused by genetics and that, someday, this will be scientifically proven. Izzard, in preparation for that day, has had her own genome sequenced.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2003, Izzard received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, for her work promoting "modern languages and tolerance of other cultures and lifestyles", and for having "transcended national barriers" with humour. She has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Sunderland in 2012, York St John University in 2018, and the University of Sheffield in 2006, where she had spent a year on an Accounting and Financial Management course in the early 1980s and established the now-defunct Alternative Productions Society in the Union of Students with the aim of promoting fringe-based arts. She was elected Honorary President of Sheffield's Students' Union in 2010.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2007, Izzard was listed as number 3 of the 100 Greatest British National Comedians (behind Peter Kay at number 2 and Billy Connolly at number 1) as part of British television station Channel 4's ongoing "100 Greatest ..." series, and was ranked 5th in 2010.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2013, Izzard received the 6th Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism, which is presented at Harvard University each year by the Humanist Community at Harvard, the American Humanist Association, and the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.


title: Eddie Izzard

text: In 2015, Izzard was chosen by readers of "The Guardian" as their 2014 public language champion. The award was announced at the Guardian and British Academy 2014 Schools Language Awards as part of the annual Language Festival.


title: Lena Headey

text: Lena Kathren Headey ( ; born 3 October 1973) is a British actress. She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO epic fantasy drama series "Game of Thrones" (2011–2019), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination, and Queen Gorgo in "300" (2006).


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey made her film debut in the British film "The Clothes in the Wardrobe" (US: "The Summer House") (1992) alongside film greats Jeanne Moreau, Joan Plowright, and Julie Walters. This was followed by the mystery drama "Waterland" (1992). She continued to work steadily in British and American films and on television, before gaining further recognition with her lead performances in the films "The Brothers Grimm" (2005) and "300" (2006). Her other film credits include "The Remains of the Day" (1993), "The Jungle Book" (1994), "Mrs Dalloway" (1997), "Ripley's Game" (2002), "Imagine Me & You" (2005), "Dredd" (2012), "The Purge" (2013), "" (2014), "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (2016), and "Fighting with My Family" (2019).


title: Lena Headey

text: Outside of film, Headey starred as Sarah Connor in the science fiction television series "" (2008–2009) and had a recurring role as Amelia Hughes in the animated web series "Infinity Train" (2019–2021). She provided voices for the role-playing video game "Risen" (2009) and the video game tie-in film "" (2016), as well as the animated series "Danger Mouse" (2015–2017) and "" (2017–2018), and the puppet series "" (2019).


title: Lena Headey

text: Lena Kathren Headey was born in Hamilton in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda on 3 October 1973, the daughter of English parents Sue and John Headey. Her father, a police officer from Yorkshire, was stationed in Hamilton at the time in the Bermuda Police Service. She has one younger brother named Tim She is of Irish descent. When she was five, her family returned to England, initially settling in Somerset. She took ballet lessons as a child. Headey had her first experience of acting when she was a pupil at Shelley College; she was noticed at age 17, when performing in a school production at the Royal National Theatre, and was picked for a role in the 1992 film "Waterland".


title: Lena Headey

text: At the age of 17, Headey performed in a one-off show and afterwards a casting agent took a photo and asked her to audition. She eventually obtained a supporting role in the drama "Waterland" (1992), in which she had the opportunity to work with actors who had been in the business several years before her. She also had a small role in the critically acclaimed 1993 drama film "The Remains of the Day", which received eight Academy Awards nominations. She appeared in the hit TV show "Soldier Soldier" with Robson Green and Jerome Flynn. Her career continued to grow in England throughout the decade, and she got larger parts in bigger motion pictures. In 1996 she featured as Collette in Kay Mellor's "Band of Gold" TV series, before starring in "Kavanagh QC" in 1997 playing the role of Natasha Jackson.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey played Kitty Brydon, the childhood friend and romantic interest of Mowgli, in Disney's "The Jungle Book" (1994). James Berardinelli praised the cast's "solid performances" as part of a positive critical reception, and the film found moderate commercial success in theaters. She appeared opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1997 romantic drama "Mrs Dalloway", portraying the closest friend of a housewife, who is now wife of a self-made millionnaire and mother of five. She was then cast in the drama "Onegin" (1999), a film based on the 19th-century Russian novel "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed the fiancée of an aspiring poet and appeared with Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.


title: Lena Headey

text: In 2000, Headey played a newly promoted lawyer with no apparent emotional attachments in the romantic comedy "Aberdeen", receiving the Silver Iris Award for Best Actress at the 2001 Brussels European Film Festival, and also starred as a troubled college student in the psychological drama "Gossip", with Kate Hudson. In 2001's comedy "The Parole Officer", Headey took on the role of a police officer, alongside Steve Coogan in his first film role. While the film was warmly received, "ViewLondon" remarked: "The only disappointment is Lena Headey, who, despite being fantastically sexy (she's given both a nude scene and a 'dressed as a prostitute' scene), smirks her way through the entire film, even at the most inappropriate moments".


title: Lena Headey

text: In 2002, she appeared as a mousey Victorian lesbian artist with Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart in the mystery drama "Possession", based on the 1990 by British author A. S. Byatt, and as the wife of a law-abiding art framer dying of leukemia in the thriller "Ripley's Game", adapted from the 1974 novel of the same name. In its review for the latter, "Eye for Film" noted: "Whilst this is very much a male-centred film, Lena Headey turns in a powerful performance as Jonathan's wife, creating a sense of balance and normality against which other events are contrasted". Headey appeared in the comedy "The Actors" (2003), opposite Dylan Moran and Michael Caine, portraying the love interest of a struggling actor. She is credited as voice actor for the character Callista in the video game Dishonored.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey found much wider recognition when she starred with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's adventure fantasy film "The Brothers Grimm" (2005), as Angelika, whose woodsman father was transformed into a werewolf by the Evil Queen. She was drawn to the "tomboy" nature of her character, about which she stated: "She lives and grows up and survives in the forest. Terry and I talked about how her instincts are almost animalistic and she can see 360 degrees around her. She is aware of what is going on. That is how she is grounded. She is of the earth". "The Brothers Grimm" received mixed reviews and made US$105.3 million worldwide.


title: Lena Headey

text: In 2005, Headey also starred with actress Piper Perabo in the films "The Cave" and "Imagine Me & You". The horror film "The Cave" saw the actress play a member of a group of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network. While critical response was negative, the film managed to turn a profit at the box office. In the romantic dramedy "Imagine Me & You", she took on the role of a woman who falls in love at first sight with a newlywed bride who reciprocates her feelings; the newlywed struggles with whether to remain in a passionless marriage to a sweet husband, or pursue her electric connection to Headey's character Luce. The film, which Commonsense Media called "charming", "quirky" and "witty", found a limited release in theaters, but Mick LaSalle from the "San Francisco Chronicle" stated that the actress "has a forthright, irresistible appeal and a face and especially a smile that suggest intelligence, integrity and lots of fun".


title: Lena Headey

text: Her most known film role came perhaps in 2007, when Headey played Queen Gorgo in Zack Snyder's epic war film "300", based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae within the Persian Wars. Her character has a much larger role in the film than she does in the comic book, where she only appears in the beginning, and required her to film naked for one scene. "It's always weird the thought of taking your clothes off in front of 20 people and then to have it projected in front of many more", she said during an interview. "I think it was necessary because we only get that scene to establish their relationship. It is a very obvious moment but I think it does it in quite a beautiful way." The film received mixed reviews, but was a box office success, grossing over US$450 million. In 2007, she also appeared as the stuffy Miss Dickinson in the sixth release of the "St. Trinian's" film series.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey starred as Sarah Connor in Fox's "", a television spin-off of James Cameron's popular "Terminator" franchise. The show ran for 31 episodes in two seasons, from January 2008 to April 2009. "Variety" praised "Headey's gritty performance as Sarah —managing to be smart, resourceful and tough, yet melancholy and vulnerable as well". For her performance, she was nominated twice for the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television. In 2008, she starred alongside Matthias Schweighöfer and Joseph Fiennes in "The Red Baron", a biographical film of the legendary World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, appeared in Ridley Scott-produced sci-fi drama "Tell-Tale", a film based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, and played a radiologist in the horror film "The Broken", which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. While the three aforementioned films went largely unnoticed by audiences, some critics praised Headey's performance in "The Broken", including Kim Koynar, of "Cinematical", who wrote that Headey "largely carries the film, and does so quite ably".


title: Lena Headey

text: In 2009, Headey played an ill-fated character in the slasher film "Laid to Rest", which received a DVD release, had a part in a short film titled "The Devil's Wedding", and also provided her voice for an episode of the Cartoon Network series "The Super Hero Squad Show", playing Black Widow and Mystique. She briefly appeared in the independent comedy "Pete Smalls Is Dead" (2010).


title: Lena Headey

text: Beginning in April 2011, Headey portrayed queen regent Cersei Lannister on the HBO series "Game of Thrones", based on George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of novels. She was cast in the role after her friend and eventual co-star, Peter Dinklage, suggested her casting to producers. Her performance as the ruthless queen has received critical acclaim, earning a Scream Award nomination for Best Fantasy Actress for the role in 2011 and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.


title: Lena Headey

text: After guest-starring in the "White Collar" episode "Taking Account" in 2011, Headey took on the role of the leader of a drug dealing gang and the primary villain in the 3D sci-fi action film "Dredd" (2012), alongside Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby. Her performance was inspired by punk-rock singer Patti Smith, and on the character, Headey asserted: "I think of [Ma-Ma] like an old great white shark who is just waiting for someone bigger and stronger to show up and kill her [...] she's ready for it. In fact, she can't wait for it to happen [...] She's an addict, so she's dead in that way, but that last knock just hasn't come". Despite a positive critical response, the film flopped at the box office, seeing greater success following its home release; it has since been recognised as a cult film.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey joined again with Ethan Hawke to star in "The Purge" (2013), a "micro-budget" horror film, in which she took on the role of the matriarch of a family who find themselves endangered by a gang of murderers during the annual Purge, a night during which all crime, even murder, is temporarily legal. The film at number one position in the United States, grossing over US$36 million over the weekend; it eventually made US$89.3 million worldwide. She next played shadowhunter Jocelyn Fray/Jocelyn Fairchild in "" (also 2013), based on the first book of "The Mortal Instruments" series by Cassandra Clare, and opposite Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower. The film flopped at the box office, and as a result, plans for sequels were eventually canceled.


title: Lena Headey

text: Following the success of "300" (2007), Headey reprised her role as Queen Gorgo in "", which was released in 2014. Like the first film, "Rise of an Empire" received mixed reviews, but was a major commercial success, grossing over US$337 million worldwide. In 2014, she also starred in the fantasy adventure film "" and the biographical film "Low Down", which detailed the life of jazz pianist Joe Albany. In 2015, she played the wife of a federal prosecutor running for office who cannot stop himself from sleeping with high-class escorts in the political thriller "Zipper", opposite Patrick Wilson.


title: Lena Headey

text: In the historical action comedy "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", Headey appeared as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, with her former "Game of Thrones", "Century" and "The Contractor" co-star Charles Dance. Andrew Barker, of "Variety", found her to be "excessively diverting" in what he considered a "tolerable, but not handsome enough" film. In 2017, Headey appeared as a "predictably hard-boiled boss" in the crime thriller "Thumper", which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and provided the voiceover for Mercedes A-Class television advertisement and Morgana in "".


title: Lena Headey

text: In November 2020, Headey's production company, Peephole Productions, signed a first-look deal with Platform One Media (now Boat Rocker Studios).


title: Lena Headey

text: In March 2022, Headey was set to make her feature directorial debut with thriller film "Violet" based on a novel of the same name by SJI Holliday.


title: Lena Headey

text: She has appeared on the covers of "TV Guide", "G3", "Sunday Mirror" and Germany's "Filmstar". She ranked No. 64 on the "Maxim" magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list. She was listed at No. 4, No. 10 and No. 3 in AfterEllen's list of the Hot 100 in 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey supports the LGBT rights organisation NOH8, and in April 2015 appeared on a T-shirt designed by them and sold through Represent.com to raise funds for the cause.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey has been involved with humanitarian organisation the International Rescue Committee (IRC), advocating for migrants who have been languishing in Greece during the European migrant crisis, saying that in the face of rising populism and the "lost humanity in leadership", people should continue to "fight for the good".


title: Lena Headey

text: In 2018, Headey did a voice-over for an advertisement by the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, which launched ahead of World Alzheimer's Day (21 September).


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey was vegetarian, and stated in a 2011 interview that she occasionally follows a vegan diet. She has a number of tattoos, including a large floral design on her back and a Pema Chödrön quote on her ribs. She told "Esquire" that she finds the process of getting tattoos "calming". Her tattoos usually have to be covered by makeup when she is acting, although she has stated that "you can usually get away with it by keeping your clothes on".


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey married musician Peter Loughran in May 2007. Their son, Wylie Loughran, was born on 31 March 2010. She has spoken about suffering from postnatal depression following his birth. Headey and Loughran separated in 2011, and she filed for divorce in July 2012, which was finalised in December 2013. On 10 July 2015, Headey gave birth to a daughter named Teddy with filmmaker Dan Cadan, a childhood friend who had worked with her on his short film "The Devil's Wedding". They had separated by June 2019. In October 2022, Headey married American actor Marc Menchaca, whom she had been dating since 2020.


title: Lena Headey

text: Headey has been close friends with fellow actress Piper Perabo since they starred together in the 2005 films "The Cave" and "Imagine Me & You". She is also good friends with her "Game of Thrones" co-star Peter Dinklage, who first suggested her to "Game of Thrones" producers.


title: Aleister Crowley

text: Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Æon of Horus in the early 20th century. A prolific writer, he published widely over the course of his life.


title: Aleister Crowley

text: Born to a wealthy family in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Crowley rejected his parents' fundamentalist Christian Plymouth Brethren faith to pursue an interest in Western esotericism. He was educated at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he focused his attentions on mountaineering and poetry, resulting in several publications. Some biographers allege that here he was recruited into a British intelligence agency, further suggesting that he remained a spy throughout his life. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where he was trained in ceremonial magic by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers and Allan Bennett. He went mountaineering in Mexico with Oscar Eckenstein, before studying Hindu and Buddhist practices in India. In 1904 he married Rose Edith Kelly and they honeymooned in Cairo, Egypt, where Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named Aiwass, who provided him with "The Book of the Law", a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema. Announcing the start of the Æon of Horus, "The Book" declared that its followers should "Do what thou wilt" and seek to align themselves with their True Will through the practice of magick.


title: Aleister Crowley

text: After the unsuccessful 1905 Kanchenjunga expedition and a visit to India and China, Crowley returned to Britain, where he attracted attention as a prolific author of poetry, novels, and occult literature. In 1907, he and George Cecil Jones co-founded an esoteric order, the A∴A∴, through which they propagated Thelema. After spending time in Algeria, in 1912 he was initiated into another esoteric order, the German-based Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), rising to become the leader of its British branch, which he reformulated in accordance with his Thelemite beliefs. Through the O.T.O., Thelemite groups were established in Britain, Australia, and North America. Crowley spent the First World War in the United States, where he took up painting and campaigned for the German war effort against Britain, later revealing that he had infiltrated the pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920, he established the Abbey of Thelema, a religious commune in Cefalù, Sicily where he lived with various followers. His libertine lifestyle led to denunciations in the British press, and the Italian government evicted him in 1923. He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and continued to promote Thelema until his death.


title: Aleister Crowley

text: Crowley gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, being a recreational drug user, bisexual, and an individualist social critic. Crowley has remained a highly influential figure over Western esotericism and the counterculture of the 1960s, and continues to be considered a prophet in Thelema. He is the subject of various biographies and academic studies.


title: Aleister Crowley

text: Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley at 30 Clarendon Square in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, on 12 October 1875. His father, Edward Crowley (1829–1887), was trained as an engineer, but his share in a lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's Alton Ales, had allowed him to retire before his son was born. His mother, Emily Bertha Bishop (1848–1917), came from a Devonshire-Somerset family and had a strained relationship with her son; she described him as "the Beast", a name that he revelled in. The couple had been married at London's Kensington Registry Office in November 1874, and were evangelical Christians. Crowley's father had been born a Quaker, but had converted to the Exclusive Brethren, a faction of a Christian fundamentalist group known as the Plymouth Brethren; Emily likewise converted upon marriage. Crowley's father was particularly devout, spending his time as a travelling preacher for the sect and reading a chapter from the Bible to his wife and son after breakfast every day. Following the death of their baby daughter in 1880, in 1881 the Crowleys moved to Redhill, Surrey. At the age of 8, Crowley was sent to H.T. Habershon's evangelical Christian boarding school in Hastings, and then to Ebor preparatory school in Cambridge, run by the Reverend Henry d'Arcy Champney, whom Crowley considered a sadist.