Vala Mal Doran

Vala Mal Doran is a thief, a liar, a whirlwind who barges into SG-1 uninvited. Cheeky, funny and impossible to pin down, she's the franchise's free spirit. But behind the charm offensive hides a woman far more damaged than she cares to admit.

Vala bursts into SG-1's life like a walking disaster: adventurer, con artist, former host of a Goa'uld, she starts by stealing an Earth ship and handcuffing Daniel Jackson, before becoming, almost in spite of everyone, a member of the team. With her, nothing ever goes according to plan.

Beneath the humor and impertinence, Vala drags a heavy past behind her: a mother lost early, a con man for a father, and above all years of possession by the Goa'uld Qetesh, who used her to commit the unforgivable. It's that wound that makes her so endearing. Her destiny takes another turn when the Ori choose her to give birth to Adria, the living weapon of their crusade, making her, very much against her will, the mother of one of the worst threats in the galaxy.

Over SG-1's final era, Vala grows attached, opens up, and reveals real courage beneath her frivolous airs. Her relationship with Daniel Jackson, made of jabs and suppressed tenderness, becomes one of the great pleasures of the last seasons. Vala is proof that you can sneak in through the back door, as a thief, and end up stealing the audience's heart.

Vala is Claudia Black, and her arrival in Stargate felt like a reunion for science fiction fans. Born in Sydney in 1972, the Australian actress first became known as Aeryn Sun, the heroine of the cult series Farscape, a performance that won her multiple awards.

Appearing in SG-1 in 2004 for a single episode, she was such a hit that she was brought back for a recurring role, then a main one, in the final seasons. Her chemistry with Michael Shanks sets off sparks, all the more so since, as luck would have it, her Farscape co-star Ben Browder had joined the series in the meantime.

But Claudia Black is also one of the great voices of video games. She has voiced dozens of characters, from Mass Effect to Uncharted by way of Dragon Age, making her a familiar presence to millions of players, often without them even knowing it.