Early life

Christian was born in Glendale, California, the daughter of Hildegard (née Christian), who worked as the director of Giorgio Beverly Hills, and James Michael Coghlan. Her mother is from Germany and her father has Irish ancestry. She was raised in Connecticut and England. She has two older brothers and currently resides in Los Angeles and London, England,

Career

Christian's first role on television was a guest appearance on Dallas, followed by a series regular role as Melody Hughes on the short-lived drama Berrenger's. She performed feature film roles such as a stripper possessed by an alien serial killer in The Hidden (1987), a police department psychologist Susan Riley in Maniac Cop 2 and as model Hexina in Hexed (1993).

In 1994-1998, she appeared as Commander Susan Ivanova, one of the series leads, in the first four seasons of Babylon 5. She left unexpectedly when contract negotiations for the fifth and final season - aggravated by the possibility that there would not be one - broke down. J. Michael Straczynski, the series' creator, maintains that she chose to leave on her own. However, Christian stated that she did wish to return for season 5, but was rebuffed and let go when she requested a small reduction in the number of episodes she would appear in. She appeared in the fifth season's series finale, which had been filmed during the fourth season, when it seemed likely that the series would end prematurely.

She posed nude for Playboy magazine in October 1999, appeared in two episodes of Freaks and Geeks in 2000, and appeared in the 2002 She Spies episode, "Spy vs Spy". In 2004, she returned to the live stage (and to Laguna Beach, California, where she had attended high school), starring in the United States Premiere of Michael Weller's play What the Night is For, with Kip Gilman, directed by Richard Stein, at the Laguna Playhouse. She starred in the BBC comedy series, Broken News in 2005. She also plays Janine Foster, mother of Peri Brown, in the Doctor Who audio drama "The Reaping", produced by Big Finish Productions released in the United Kingdom in September 2006.

She voices Anne Manx in the full cast recordings for the Radio Repertory Company of America. The science fiction series is currently shown as in pre-production for "Anne Manx 6". In 2010, Christian appeared in the Showtime series Look: The Series.

She also had a music career, having released a solo album, Once Upon a Time, a single, "Taboo", a collaboration with Claudia Cummings, Claudia Squared, and a collaboration with some of the other cast members of Babylon 5 on the album The Be Five.

Claudia Con UK

Christian conceived her own convention, Claudia Con UK, which took place in the United Kingdom on August 13-14, 2011.

"After years of attending conventions where fans were mistreated, told not to touch, photograph, film, eat or breathe…. I decided to throw what I call the 'anti-convention.' My theory is that if you give people freedom and respect they will in turn give you freedom and respect."

Charity work

Christian has been publicizing the Sinclair Method through her book Babylon Confidential, in which she recalls her own experiences with the condition. She made a documentary titled One Little Pill about the method under the auspices of the C3 Foundation, which she founded.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Calendar Girl Murders	Kara	Television movie
1989	A Masterpiece of Murder	Julia Forsythe
1986	Houston: The Legend of Texas		Also known as Gone to Texas
1987	The Hidden	Brenda Lee Van Buren
1988	Police Story: Monster Manor	Officer Babs Altoon
1988	Never on Tuesday	Tuesday
1988	Clean and Sober	Iris
1989	Shannon's Dead
1989	Tale of Two Sisters	Liz
1990	Danielle Steel's Kaleidoscope	Meagan	Television movie
1990	Mad About You	Casey
1990	Maniac Cop 2	Officer Susan Riley
1990	Think Big	Dr. Irene Marsh
1990	A Gnome Named Gnorm	Samantha
1991	Lie of the Twins	Felice
1991	The Woman Who Sinner	Judy Reinhardt
1991	Strays	Claire Lederer
1991	The Dark Backward	Kitty
1991	Arena	Quinn
1993	Hexed	Hexina
1993	Relentless: Mind of a Killer	Leeann Hardy	Television movie
1994	The Chase	Yvonne Voss
1997	Lancelot: Guardian of Time	Katherine Shelley
1997	Mercenary II: Thick & Thin	Patricia Van Lier
1998	A Wing and a Prayer	Shelley Lowe
1998	Babylon 5: In the Beginning	Commander Susan Ivanova
1998	Babylon 5: Thirdspace	Commander Susan Ivanova
1998	Snide and Prejudice	Renate Muller
1999	Haunting of Hell House	Lucy
1999	Running Home	Jules Daniels
1999	The Substitute 3: Winner Takes All	Andy
1999	Final Voyage	Max
2010	Meteor Apocalypse	Kate Dematti
2000	Love & Sex	Woman in gallery	Cameo
2000	True Rights	Elaine Kilgore
2001	Atlantis: The Lost Empire	Helga Sinclair	Voice role
2002	Half Past Dead	EZ Williams
2002	The Failures	Anna
2005	The Garden	Dr Cairns
2006	The Dot Man	Lieutenant Colonel Dunst
2008	Serbian Scars	Meggie	Co-producer
2012	Overnight	Sandy
2012	Rise of an Exile	Hannah Benedict	Pre-production
2014	The Writer with No Hands	Herself
2014	One Little Pill	Herself and as narrator	Documentary

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	T. J. Hooker	Betty MacRae	Episode: "The Lipstick Killer"
1984	Dallas		Episode: "Some Do...Some Don't"
1984	Falcon Crest	Kate Mars	Episode: "Tests of Faith"
1984	Riptide	Marion Gordon	Episode: "Where The Girls Are"
1984	Hunter	Roxanne Hoffmeyer	Episode: "Love, Hate, and Sporty James"
1984	Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer	Cassie Conroy	Episodes: "Elegy for a Tramp", "Shots in the Dark"
1985	The A-Team	Cathy Rogers	Episode: "Trouble Brewing"
1986	Blacke's Magic	Laurie Blacke	Episodes: "Breathing Room", "Death Goes To The Movies"
1985	Berrenger's	Melody Hughes	Series regular
1987	The Highwayman	The Highwayman's liaison, Dawn	Episode: "Terror on the Blacktop "
1987	Jake and the Fatman	Lt. Alex Walker	Episode: "Easy to Love"
1987	It's Garry Shandling's Show	Sylvia	Episode: "Dial L for Laundry"
1989	Quantum Leap	Allison	Episode: "Play It Again, Seymour"
1990	Matlock	Mickey Alder	Episode: "The Blackmailer"
1991	Murder, She Wrote	Bonnie Jenks Hastings	Episode: "Prodigal Father"
1991	L.A. Law	Susan Convers	Episode: "Speak, Lawyers, for Me"
1991	Dark Justice	Dana Hollister Harrison	Episode: "To Die For"
1993	Columbo	Lisa Martin	Feature length special "Columbo: It's All In the Game"
1993	Space Rangers	Marla Baker	Episode: "Death Before Dishonor"
1994	Babylon 5	Commander Susan Ivanova	Main cast
1997	The Oz Kids	Queen Aquareine
1997	Total Security	Cheryl Bankston	Episode: "Pilot"
1997	Highlander: The Series	Katherine	Episode: "Two of Hearts"
1999	Freaks and Geeks	Gloria Haverchuck	Recurring role
2000	Family Law	Carla Sims	Episode: "Are You My Father?"
2001	Relic Hunter	Carson Inez	Episode: "All Choked up"
2002	She Spies	Tanya	Episode: "Spy vs Spies"
2002	NYPD Blue	Catherine Lowell	Episode "Better Laid Than Never"
2003	Everwood	Young Edna	Episode: "My Brother's Keeper"
2005	Starhyke	Captain Belinda Blowhard	Main cast
2005	Broken News	Julia Regan	Series regular
2007	Nip/Tuck	Gwen	Episode: "Dawn Budge II"
2010	Look: The Series	Stella	Series regular
2011	Grimm	Mrs. Clark	Episode "Let Your Hair Down"
2013	Criminal Minds	Agent Gretchen Stern	Episode: "Alchemy"
2014	Castle	Mrs. Logan	Episode: "Law & Boarder"
2014	The Mentalist	Greta Fortensky	Episode: "Black Market"

Video games

Year	Title	Role
1995	Solar Eclipse/Titan Wars
2004	Shrek 2	Fairy Godmother
2009	Pizza Morgana	Abbie Positive
2011	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Multiple, including Aela the Huntress, Bryling, Legate Rikke, Sorli the Builder and Wolf-Queen Potema (various other characters)
2012	Guild Wars 2	Female Norn PC
2012	Darksiders II	Muria
2012	Halo 4	Additional voices
2015	Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void	Rohana
2015	Fallout 4	Desdemona / Mrs. Whitfield / Mistress Mysterious

Writing

• "Revenge is a Bitch to Swallow." Short story. Published in Forbidden Love Issue 2: Wicked Women.
• My Life With Geeks and Freaks. Autobiography. Published by Yard Dog Press.
• "Babylon Confidential: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Addiction" Autobiography.
• Wolf's Empire: Gladiator. Novel, co-written with Morgan Grant Buchanan. 2016.

Discography

• Claudia Squared with Claudia Cummings (1996)
• Trying to Forget by The Be Five (1998)
• "Taboo" single (1998, Zard)
• Once Upon a Time (2001, Zard)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]