Ask Renee about everything from the Dawn of Man to Tim Burton’s obsession with ‘50s monster movies (there’s some Xena information here too!).

“I always wanted to become an actress,” Renee O’Connor says with the exuberance of her TV character, Gabrielle, courageous sidekick to Xena: Warrior Princess. “I mean, it was sort of like an obsession.”

Comic book-style superheroes may come and go, but realistic, fleshed-out characters are eternal. That’s the philosophy of Renaissance Pictures, creators of TV’s reigning king and queen of mythological muscle, Hercules and Xena.

Costume Designer Ngila Dickson determines what the well-dressed Warrior Princess - and her cohorts - are wearing.

And then in September 1995, there was Xena: Warrior Princess. From the start this was something very different. A female warrior.