What Happened To Lena Headey After Game Of Thrones?

Since launching her acting career in the early 1990s, British thespian Lena Headey has appeared in an extraordinary number of films and TV series, both in her native U.K. and in Hollywood. Among her most memorable projects during the 2000s are the feature film "300," in which she played the queen of Sparta, and the short-lived TV series "The Sarah Conner Chronicles," which featured Headey in the titular role made famous by Linda Hamilton in "The Terminator" and its sequels. That said, some would say that Headey's career can be divided into two distinct stages: before "Game of Thrones" and after "Game of Thrones." 

In the fantasy drama series, Headey captivated audiences with her performance as Cersei Lannister, the cutthroat, conniving, and oh-so-seductive queen of Westeros. Arguably the most scandalous character in the series, Cersei's arc saw her widowed, then ruling by proxy as her two sons (both of whom were fathered by her brother!) took to the Iron Throne — cruel and arrogant Joffrey, and, after his death, naive youngster Tommen. When a shift in the political tide led to her imprisonment by a fringe religious movement, she faced scorn and humiliation — but ultimately settled the score in a brutal bout of revenge. The show became one of television's biggest hits, and by the later seasons, Headey and her co-stars were rewarded with massive salaries — a half-million per episode for the penultimate seventh season, and $1.2M for the eighth and final season. Given that she only appeared onscreen for about 25 minutes during the final season, that was quite the payday. Since the series' end, she's been busier than ever. Read on for a rundown of what happened to Lena Headey after "Game Of Thrones."

Released shortly before the series finale of "Game of Thrones," the 2019 film "Fighting with My Family" was about as far away from Westeros as it gets. Set within the world of professional wrestling, "Fighting with my Family" told the true story of British-born WWE Divas champ Paige (played by Florence Pugh), who was raised in a family of wrestlers. Lena Headey potrayed Paige's wrestler mom, Julia, a role that consciously set some distance between herself and Cersei — a character that, while closely identified with her, was actually nothing like her. "Where I lay naturally as a person is more relaxed and nerdy than playing wicked queens," she told Thrillist at the time.

That same year also saw the release of "The Flood," a low-budget British indie in which she played a hard-nosed customs official tasked with deciding what to do with a refugee from the African nation of Eritrea. Her fellow "Game of Throne" alum Iain Glenn (who played exiled knight Ser Jorah Mormont) portrayed her character's boss. In addition to allowing the chance to play another character worlds away from Cersei, "The Flood" was also a return to her roots. "I sort of grew up in the small British film industry, back when films were made for no money by people who felt passionate about their projects, and were shot in a really small space of time," she told The Guardian. "And I missed that way of filmmaking."

For those who watched the HBO hit series, it was obvious why the women of "Game of Thrones" were the true heroes. The same can be said of Lena Headey's next project, "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance." A made-for-TV sequel to Muppets creator Jim Henson's beloved 1982 film, the series focused on the elf-like Gelfings as they pushed back against the tyrannical Skeksis. Part of an impressive voice cast that also included Anya Taylor-Joy, Taron Egerton, and her "Game of Thrones" co-star Nathalie Emmanuel, Headey portrayed Maudra Fara, leader of the Gelfings' Stonewood Clan.

"She's a brave warrior leader of her clan, and she's a little bit traditional," Lisa Henson, CEO of the Jim Henson Company and one of the series' executive producers, told Entertainment Weekly of the character Maudra. "When she first hears that there's been some sort of bad goings-on, she really doesn't want to get involved. She wants to stay out of trouble. But then she gets drawn into the Gelfling mission and becomes a really important ally to the heroes." According to Henson, Headey was perfectly cast in the role, imbuing the character with personality traits a world away from those evinced by icy Cersei Lannister. "There is a warmth to her performance," Henson said of Headey. "She cares deeply for her clan and for the well-being of all the Gelflings."

For Lena Headey, "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" was one of many acting projects that utilized only her voice, not her striking good looks. For example, she provided the voice of crime boss Big Mama in the animated TV series "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," in addition to voicing sorceress Morgana in the King Arthur-inspired animated Netflix miniseries "Wizards," as well as Amelia in the adult-oriented animated series "Infinity Train."

Lena Headey also voiced a key character in director Kevin Smith's edgy Netflix reboot of the 1980s-era Saturday-morning cartoon "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." In Smith's 2021 revamp, "Masters of the Universe: Revelation," Headey portrayed villainous Evil-Lyn and reprised the role in the 2024 spinoff series, "Masters of the Universe: Revolution." The opportunity to work with the director of such films as "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" was too good for Headey to pass up. "Kevin Smith is a dreamboat," she told Collider, lauding his commitment to creating a quality series that fans would appreciate. "I always enjoy projects where the director is so invested and so passionate, and you can only be inspired by that," Headey added. "And Kevin is like that about this series. He loves it."

While voice acting in animated projects opened up a whole new career sideline for Lena Headey, she continued to maintain her status as a live onscreen actor. That was evident when she joined the cast of "Twist," a unique take on Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" set in present-day London. Taking its cues from the original source material, the film saw Oliver (played by screen newcomer Raff Law, son of acclaimed British actor Jude Law) as a street artist with a talent for parkour who is recruited by a gang of thieves led by the wily Fagin (played by movie legend Michael Caine, one of the few celebs who you may not have known were knighted). Alongside Caine, Headey portrayed Fagin's partner in crime, Sikes.

As anyone who has read the novel — or seen one of the previous film or TV adaptations — should recognize, Headey's character was originally named Bill Sikes, a nasty brute of a man who serves as Fagin's muscle. Obviously, casting Headey in a role originally envisioned as male was a bold choice — and one that she wholeheartedly supported. "I couldn't be more excited to take on the iconic character of Sikes from 'Oliver Twist,'" she said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). "Flipping roles without apology or character softening is a brilliant way to breathe new life into established materials and bring it to new audiences."

In 2021, Lena Headey returned to the action genre she'd once embraced in "The Sarah Conner Chronicles" when she was cast as Scarlet, an elite assassin in Netflix movie "Gunpowder Milkshake." Scarlet was forced to abandon her 12-year-old daughter, Sam (played as an adult by the enviously tall Karen Gillan), who was subsequently trained as an assassin by a shadowy organization known as the Firm. When deadly circumstances 15 years later bring this long-estranged mother and daughter together, both their lives hang in the balance.

The project required a lot of training. According to Headey, she and Gillan arrived on set three weeks before shooting began in order to undertake extensive gun and stunt training. While preparing for the stunts was no walk in the park, it was learning to handle firearms that really proved challenging. "But the gun training was really intense," Headey told Business Insider. "I was thinking, 'My God, I feel like I've signed up to some army somewhere.' I think [director] Navot [Papushado] wanted it to be really authentic and for us to know exactly how to do with the guns. It's helpful." The film offered Headey yet another opportunity to show Hollywood that she could portray characters who were nothing like Cersei Lannister. "It's just fresh and fun and I get to fight," she told TV Insider, "I'll take anything where that happens!"

Lena Headey continued to build on her action-hero cred with the 2022 feature project "9 Bullets." Headey played Gypsy, a former burlesque dancer who places her life at risk when she chooses to protect the life of a young boy who witnessed his parents' murder. Complicating the situation is that fact that the crime boss who ordered the hit is her former beau (played by "Avatar" star Sam Worthington).

Less stylized than "Gunpowder Milkshake" and less fantastical than "Game of Thrones," "9 Bullets" pushed Headey in a gritty, realistic scenario of violence and survival. "It's a good old throwback to the early '90s thrillers ... a good popcorn Sunday movie," Headey described the film during an appearance on "Good Morning America." "The underdog triumphs and she kind of realizes that she's able to love someone, and that just happens to be the kid."

The movie is distinctive in Headey's body of work in that, as someone who once belonged to a group of celebs who refuse to bare it all, she chose to display herself naked in "9 Bullets" for the first time. She chose not to appear nude in "Game of Thrones" and famously used a body double in the scene in which Cersei is forced to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing while Septa Unella (future "Ted Lasso" standout Hannah Waddingham) repeatedly chants, "Shame!" Headey explained her decision to bare all for "9 Bullets on an episode of "The Happy Vagina" podcast. "No one made me do it, no one twisted my arm, it was in the story ... and I'm just going to embrace it."

After a string of star turns, Lena Headey took a supporting role in "White House Plumbers," a 2023 HBO miniseries chronicling the inept burglary that sparked the Watergate scandal and ultimately led to the resignation of disgraced President Richard Nixon. In the series, Republican intelligence operative E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) unwisely, it turned out, enlists unhinged former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux) and his incompetent crew of bungling Cubans to steal secret documents from the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. The robbery is botched, leaving Hunt and Liddy to desperately (and ultimately unsuccessfully) try to cover their tracks.

Headey portrayed Hunt's wife, Dorothy, an ex-CIA agent who became a pivotal figure in the Watergate scandal. According to Headey, she became intrigued by the role when series director David Mandel explained to her just how important Dorothy was to Watergate as it unfolded. "She's the bolt of the story. And to work opposite Woody [Harrelson], it was a delicious recipe," she told Collider, declaring how excited she was to play such an intelligent, complex character. "Yeah, she's fascinating," Headey added. "She should have a spinoff."

In 2017, toward the end of her tenure on "Game of Thrones," Lena Headey got engaged to Dan Cadan after the birth of their daughter, Teddy, in 2015 (she is also the mother of an older child, her son Wylie, from her previous marriage to ex-husband Peter Loughran). The relationship, however, did not last; Headey and Caden called it off and went their separate ways in 2019.

In 2020, she began dating fellow actor Marc Menchaca, best known for the recurring role of Russ Longmore in Netflix drama "Ozark." The romance blossomed, and the two tied the knot in 2022, with the wedding held in Italy's scenic Puglia region. The nuptials were attended by several of Headey's "Game of Thrones" co-stars, including onscreen brother Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Michelle Fairley, and Conleth Hill. While Headey has rarely discussed her personal life, Menchaca briefly opened up about how, as two working actors, they try to work together whenever possible. "We try to never spend more than two weeks apart," he told Texas A&M University, his alma mater.

Lena Headey ventured into the sci-fi genre with "Beacon 23," a mind-bending series set in a sort of space lighthouse during the 23rd century. The series' path to television, however, was a rocky one. Initially intended to air on Spectrum Originals, the series was abruptly left homeless when the cable channel folded in 2022. Salvation came in the form of streaming service MGM+, which picked up the show for both its first and second seasons (the second was ordered before the first was even completed). 

Headey portrayed Aster Calyx, a government agent who winds up on the lighthouse alongside its lonely beacon keeper Halan Kai Nelson (played by Stephan James). Aster is fatally injured at the end of the first season and succumbs to her injuries at the start of the second. "Lena Headey was a wonderful, versatile actress before she gave one of the defining performances in television history. So, as they say, 'no pressure,'" series creator Zak Penn said in a statement (via Entertainment Weekly). "I'm thankful to all the people making this show possible, they just keep delivering beyond my expectations."

Actors have different motivations for the projects they take on, be it a hefty paycheck or an overwhelming desire to tell a particular story. The latter was top of mind for Lena Headey when she signed on to star in "Long Pork," a short film with a large and powerful message. 

Set in America in a not-too-distant future, with the government now a radical religious theocracy and Roe v. Wade a distant memory, the film casts Headey as Lily Williams, an acclaimed master chef at a renowned steakhouse. Grief-stricken over her daughter's death during a forced birth — which could have been avoided had the government consented to her request for an abortion — Lily is given an unexpected opportunity for retribution when the judge responsible for her daughter's death sentence (played by her real-life husband, Marc Menchaca) requests a reservation at her restaurant. Armed with her considerable skills at butchery, Lily exacts brutal revenge while setting the stage for a revolution.

Around the same time that "Game of Thrones" ended its run, Lena Headey decided to take a stab at directing. She made her debut behind the camera with the 2019 music video for singer-songwriter Freya Ridings' single, "You Mean the World to Me." She followed up that same year with her first short film, "The Trap," starring fellow "Game of Thrones" alum Michelle Fairley (aka Catelyn Stark). Speaking with The Guardian in 2019, Headey described the short — which she wrote nine years earlier — as an "intimate, emotionally driven piece" that took years to come together. According to Headey, the experience of directing was revelatory for her. "I've never, ever in my life felt more content and in my place. Ever," she said.

After directing another music video, for the dreamy track "Miracle" from Madeon, she returned to "The Trap," expanding it into a feature film that debuted in 2023. While discussing her transition from actor to director, Headey revealed that directing was a goal she'd been pursuing for a long, long time — and achieving it was even sweeter than she'd imagined. "I always have — from being 17 and working in the business, I've always been curious and driven towards it," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "Everyone that loves me has known this was my desire for two decades. So, for me, it was mayhem and pure joy."

In September 2025, Lena Headey signed onto her next project, a Netflix series from Charlie Brooker, the creator of acclaimed anthology series "Black Mirror." The four-part crime thriller focuses on the hunt for a serial killer, with Headey spotted filming the series shortly after that announcement. Meanwhile, just a few months earlier she'd been cast in "Divine Blood," a dark indie comedy in which she portrays a once-famous artist who gained notoriety for painting with her own menstrual blood. 

What's more, Headey had already completed work on several projects which, at that point, had yet to be released. These included "Normal," an offbeat action-thriller starring "Breaking Bad" alum Bob Odenkirk and Headey as Moira, the local bartender. Other projects she'd completed by that time include the film "Ballistic" (in which she plays a woman who works in a munitions factory, only to discover she manufactured the bullet that killed her son), "The Abandons" (a revisionist Western series also starring the iconic GIllian Anderson, one of the few celebs who have publicly spoken about sexism in Hollywood), and animated superhero series "New Gen."

With a schedule that chockablock, it's clear that Headey's acting services continue to be in high demand. However, just in case her career were to suddenly slump, Headey revealed that she has an alternate plan in place. "I'm investigating beekeeping," she told People. "I never went to college, so I cannot actually do anything. My fantasy is keeping bees and making skateboards."