Jennifer Cecily Ward-Lealand (born 8 November 1962) is a New Zealand theatre and film actor /director, teacher and intimacy coordinator. She has worked for 40 years, appearing in over 120 theatre performances: Greek, Shakespeare, drama, comedy, devised, and musical theatre. Her screen credits include the 1993 movie Desperate Remedies as well as appearances in The Footstep Man, the soap Shortland Street and Australian comedy series Full Frontal. Biography Ward-Lealand was born in Wellington, New Zealand to Philippa "Pippa" Mary (née Ward) and Conrad Ainsley Lealand. She has an older sister, Diana Mary Ward-Pickering and a half brother Simcha Lindt. From the age of seven, after experiencing the buzz of joining the cast of Oedipus Rex at Unity Theatre, Ward-Lealand knew that she wanted to be an actor. Since 1988 she has been married to actor Michael Hurst of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fame. They met at Theatre Corporate, then performed in 22 shows together, before their two sons were born in 1997 and 1999. The sons follow 'family tradition' by working in film and music production. Ward-Lealand's first ongoing television role was as Jan in Close to Home (1978–1980). She sought opportunities to develop her theatre skills with roles at Downstage Youth Theatre. After leaving school, Ward-Lealand spent a year touring New Zealand in a community theatre group, The Town and Country Players, performing clown shows and appearing in Chekhov's one-act play The Bear. When she was seventeen, she had the epiphany that she wanted to train at Theatre Corporate, inspired by a performance of Metamorphosis directed by Raymond Hawthorne. After first attending a summer school at Auckland's influential Theatre Corporate, Ward-Lealand then completed in 1982 a year-long diploma in acting with Paul Minnifie and Raymond Hawthorne as the main teacher /directors. She credits her intense training at Theatre Corporate with instilling discipline, fortitude and ensemble experience. Work followed between the venues of Theatre Corporate and Mercury Theatre, with opportunities to develop a classic cabaret repertoire showcasing Ward-Lealand performing songs by Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Stephen Sondheim and Kurt Weill. Meanwhile Ward-Lealand appeared in the short-lived TV drama Seekers, before her breakthrough television role in "Danny and Raewyn", an episode from the About Face series. Filmed largely in an Auckland flat, so cramped the cameraman sometimes had to sit on the stove, this tale of working class relationship breakdown would win Ward-Lealand a GOFTA Best Actress Award. The same