title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The 2008 update included a new radiator grille with three thicker horizontal fins, replacing the previous seven, thinner fins. The COMAND APS infotainment and navigation system was revised with many new or extended functions such as the LINGUATRONIC voice control system, a 12-speaker Harman Kardon Logic 7 surround sound stereo system, TV tuner and a special off-road menu for the G 320 CDI and G 500 model. Heated and ventilated front seats were also offered.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The 2009 G550 replaces the 2008 G500, and gets a new 5.5-litre V8 petrol engine with [mated to the 722.9 7spd transmission], replacing the 5.0-litre that was in the 2008 G500. The new engine will improve the acceleration for the new G550.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: For the 30th anniversary of production, Mercedes-Benz offered two special anniversary editions. One was the G 500/G 550 with a more opulent interior and exclusive designo leather upholstery along with special decals. Another one was a new utility model, the G 280 CDI Edition 30 PUR, consisting of the W461 chassis with a 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel engine (OM 642 DE LA red.) and the W463 four-wheel-drive system.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: After its last major update in 2007, the interior received a completely redesigned instrument panel and centre console adapted from the ML-Class. The COMAND APS touchscreen and control panel were moved up toward the top of the dashboard for easier viewing and operation. The COMAND APS was updated with the MBrace2 telematics system. Additional safety features included DISTRONIC adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, revised PARKTRONIC reverse sensors and rear-view camera and revised ATS4 stability control for improved trailer stabilising functionality.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Externally, the G-Class received the same horizontal bars of LED daytime running lamps underneath the headlamps and the new external side rear-view mirrors as the GL-Class and ML-Class models. The AMG version received a new front bumper with three large air intakes.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The 5.4-litre supercharged V8 [with 722.6 5spd transmission] in the 2011 G55(K) will be replaced by a new 5.5-litre biturbo V8 [with 722.9 7spd transmission] for increased performance on the upcoming 2013 G63. Topping out the G-Class model range was a new G 65 AMG with a 6-litre biturbo V12 petrol engine. Two models were carried over unchanged: the G 350 CDI BlueTEC and G 500/G 550.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: For the 2016 model year, the outgoing M273 5.5-litre naturally aspirated V8 fitted to the G 500/G 550 was replaced by the new M176 4.0-litre biturbo V8 for increased horsepower and torque.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: "Notes: (m) and (a) denote "manual" and "automatic" transmissions where applicable. Fuel consumption marked with * denotes the older EEC regulation of "urban, 90 km/h, and 120 km/h" (U/90/120). Top speed with ** denotes the "electronically limited"."


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The second generation G-Class (W463) was launched on 14 January 2018 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: In contrast to its predecessor, the new G-Class has grown 121 millimeters in width and 53 millimeters in length. The ground clearance has increased by 6 millimeters. The increase in width is for more driving stability, sturdier side impact protection, and more seating comfort. The increased length, especially in the front end, is due to the new 2019 EU pedestrian impact safety regulations: the previous generation did not have enough open space between the car's front end and the rigid components beneath for the crumple zone as to mitigate the injury to a pedestrian's body.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: A major change was with the steering system which was switched from a recirculating ball system to variable-ratio rack-and-pinion with adaptive electric power assistance. The new steering system allows safety and convenience equipment such as active lane-keeping assist, Pre-Safe collision avoidance systems and self-parking capability. The rack-and-pinion steering system does not work with solid front suspension so a change was made to use independent front suspension.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The extensive, ground-up redesign allowed engineers to incorporate more lightweight materials such as high-strength and ultra-high-strength steels and aluminums. In addition, the redesign led to an improved manufacturing process which increased structural rigidity. The gap between the doors and body shell is much narrower than the previous generation. Despite the increased dimensions, the weight has been reduced by about 170 kilograms.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The second generation W463 is similar visually to the first generation, and the chassis code, W463, is still retained rather than W464 as some media outlets erroneously reported. However, only three parts from the previous generation were carried over to the new generation: the headlamp washers, the push-button door handles and the spare wheel cover bolted to the rear tailgate.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The new G 500 (renamed to G 550 for 2020 onwards) is powered by the 4.0-liter "M176" V8 twin-turbo engine, producing 416 hp and 450 lb⋅ft of torque. It is mated to a nine-speed automatic 9G-Tronic transmission with torque-converter.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: For the new diesel variant, the G 350d was initially released for the 2019 model year, powered by the 2.9-liter "OM656" inline-6 turbocharged diesel engine, producing 282 hp and 443 lb⋅ft of torque. The G 400d was later introduced for the 2020 model year onwards. The G 400d features the same "OM656" engine as the G 350d, but output has been increased to 326 hp and 516 lb⋅ft of torque. Both models are still produced by Mercedes-Benz, however certain markets only sell one of the two.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The redesign also allowed newer safety and collision avoidance equipment from the W222 S-Class to be fitted to the G-Class for the first time. In addition, the updated interior has a new instrument cluster and infotainment system from other Mercedes-Benz models (A-Class (W177) and E-Class (W213)), air vents, steering column-mounted gear selector, multimedia system and control panel on the tunnel console, a higher level of luxury trimming and 64-color ambient lighting. A Burmester surround sound system and a larger dual 12-inch LCD display with smartphone integration (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto) were offered as optional equipment. One design element carried over to the new generation was the front passenger's grab bar on the dashboard.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The new G 550 and AMG G 63 have gone on sale in the United States with a starting price of $125,495 and $144,695 respectively. The 2019 G-Class for the US market has the widest range of exterior colors available, totaling 24, of any Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicle.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Mercedes-Benz announced in September 2021 that they will cease selling V8 engine cars in the United States for the 2022 model year, including the G 63 and G 550 models.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: In September 2020, the G 350 was introduced for the Chinese market to circumvent the heavy taxation on larger engine displacement. It is powered by the 2.0-liter M264 turbocharged inline-4, producing 255 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque.The G 350 is the first G-Class with a four-cylinder inline engine since the previous model, the G 230, was dropped in 1995.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Alongside the new G 550, Mercedes-AMG unveiled the new G 63 in March 2018 at the Geneva International Motor Show. The model is powered by the V8 twin-turbo "M177" engine, producing 577 hp and 627 lb⋅ft of torque, an increase of 14 hp and 66 lb⋅ft over the previous generation G 63 AMG. Mercedes-AMG claims a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds and a top speed of 149 mph with the optional Driver's Package. The G 63 now defaults to a rear-biased 40:60 torque split versus the 50:50 split of its predecessor.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: In addition to the performance increases over the standard G 550 with the AMG model, the G 63 also features AMG-developed suspension, larger red brake calipers and perforated brake discs, AMG-specific transmission modes, radiator grille, flared wheel arches, striking side pipes on the exhaust system, and wider wheels up to 22-inches in diameter. The model features distinct front and rear fascias and body styling, as well as an AMG-specific interior with a standard AMG Performance steering wheel with flattened bottom.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: To commemorate the launch of the second-generation G-63, Mercedes-AMG released the Edition 1 special edition at market launch. The special model features Designo Night Black Magno paint with contrasting matte Graphite Grey sports stripes along the vehicle sides, a decorative red stripe on the exterior mirrors, and Night Package featuring gloss black trim and accents. The Edition 1 also features matte black 22-inch forged wheels with red-painted rim flanges and a cross-spoke design, as well as red accents throughout the interior.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: The optional AMG Trail Package can be specified for the G 63 model only, offering greater off-road capability and styling. The package adds softer settings for the adaptive dampers to enhance off-road driving and maneuverability. 20-inch wheels with five sets of twin spokes and all-terrain tires are part of the package. A black skid plate and mud flaps behind the rear wheels are fitted to the body.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Following the previous generation's G 63 AMG 6x6 and G 500/G 550 4x4², Mercedes-Benz-AMG introduced the new G 63 4x4² for the second generation iteration in June of 2022 via YouTube. The AMG G 63 4x4² features the same "M177" V8 twin-turbo as the standard AMG G 63 but with output increased to 585 hp from 577 hp, and raised portal axles like the previous generation G 500/G 550 4x4², except now with independent front axles. The model went on sale Fall 2022 for the 2023 model year at a price of $350,050 USD.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Compared to the standard AMG G 63, the AMG G 63 4x4² features a raised height, larger carbon-fiber fenders, 22-inch wheels with 37-inch Pirelli 325/55R22 all-terrain tires, LED light bar, roof rack with carbon-fiber windscreen, carbon-fiber spare tire cover, and rugged styling. With this increase in height, the model offers a ground clearance 4.3 inches over stock at 13.8 inches, wading depth 8.2 inches over stock at 35.8 inches, and 41.3° approach and 36.8° departure angles.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Additionally, compared to the previous generation G 500/G 550 4x4², the wheelbase is increased by 0.9 inch to 113.1 inches, height is increased by 0.8 inch to 88.8 inches, width is increased by 5.4 inches to 82.5 inches, and length is increased by 3.9 inches to 181.1 inches, or 194.5 inches when accounting for the spare tire carrier. Weight is decreased by 379 lbs to 6,315 lbs. Mercedes-Benz claims an estimated 5.0 0-60 mph time.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Mercedes-Benz has introduced the bespoke/individualisation programme exclusive for the G-Class: G manufaktur. Similar to the Mercedes-Benz designo programme, buyers can specify different colour and material options. For the exterior, buyers can choose from 26 exclusive G manufaktur paint colours, and the Black Accents covers for the fender flares, roof, front and rear bumpers, external rear-view mirrors, rub stripes, spare wheel cover ring, wheels, side exhaust pipe tips, etc in gloss black paint. For the interior, 64 different seat colour combinations and three patterns can be specified. The dashboard and steering wheel cover can be ordered with a two-toned colour combination. On the passenger grab bar, the G manufaktur brand is etched on the stainless steel trim.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the G-Class and the 20th anniversary of the G 55 AMG, Mercedes-Benz introduced the Stronger Than Time edition for the G 400 d, G 500, and Mercedes-AMG G 63. For the G 400 d and G 500, the edition is fitted with the AMG Line exterior package, black 20-inch AMG wheels, and stainless steel trim for the running boards, spare wheel cover, and door sills. The puddle lamps display the G-Class logo and Stronger Than Time on the ground. The driver's assistance package, LED headlamps, Burmester surround stereo system, and sunroof are added as standard equipment. The G 63 has a dark chrome grille and matte chrome covering the running boards, exhaust outlets, mirror caps, portions of the front and rear bumper, skid plate, and sections of the spare wheel cover. The 22-inch matte black AMG wheels are fitted to the G 63.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: Three interior designs can be chosen: black Nappa leather with gold stitching and open-pore black ash wood trim; a mix of Macchiato Beige and Yacht Blue leather with light brown sen wood trim; and Macchiato Beige and Lounge Red with piano black lacquer. The Nappa leather trim covers the roof grab handles and the instrument cluster cover. The two-tone black and Titanium Grey Pearl Nappa leather with carbon fiber trim is exclusive to the G 63 model.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: With the success of "Worker", "Pur", and "Professional" variants in the previous W461 generation, Mercedes-Benz introduced the new "Professional Line Exterior" at the IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich. "Professional Line Exterior" is an exterior accessory options that the owners can customise their G-Class vehicles. The options include climbing ladder, roof rack, simpler spare wheel holder, black trims, headlamp protection grill shield, and like. Unlike the previous "Worker", "Pur", and "Professional" variants, "Professional Line Exterior" isn't a stripped-down utilitian version of G-Class and based on W461 chassis.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: On 5 September 2021, Mercedes-Benz previewed Concept EQG, the G-Class concept car with pure electric drive, at IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich. Externally, Concept EQG carries the styling of the second generation G-Class, with updated elements to distinguish the electric variant, such as a square tire cover, extensive additional LED lighting including a LED Black Panel grille, updated front and rear fascias, new 22-inch wheels, and special roof rack. While Mercedes-Benz has not revealed the technical data yet, Concept EQG has four electric motors that are placed closer to the wheels and that can operate independently; the battery packs are 108 kWH. Additionally, a two-speed gearbox allows the gear reductions for the off-road travel. The model names are EQG 560 4MATIC and EQG 580 4MATIC. The production version is confirmed for 2024.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: In the late 1990s the USMC acquired the G-Class model as the Interim Fast Attack Vehicle (IFAV), which was essentially a '97 to '01 DaimlerChrysler model 290 GDT, a diesel-power 2-door with a pick-up bed. This was compact and light enough to be transported inside a Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion Helicopter.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: In 1983 a specially modified 280 GE won the Paris–Dakar Rally driven by Jacky Ickx and Claude Brasseur.


title: Mercedes-Benz G-Class

text: A 1990 G-Class appears in the action film The Bourne Supremacy. It is involved in the film's last chase and is eventually destroyed in a crash with a concrete post.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2006, Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, "The New York Times" hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane made his professional theatre debut in 1978 off-Broadway production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". During this time he briefly appeared as one half of the comedy team of Stack and Lane, until he was cast in the 1982 Broadway revival of Noël Coward's "Present Laughter" directed by and starring George C. Scott. This led to an extensive career onstage, where he had a long friendship and fruitful collaboration with the playwright Terrence McNally which started in 1989 with the Manhattan Theater Club production of "The Lisbon Traviata".


title: Nathan Lane

text: A six time Tony Award nominee, Lane has won three times portraying Pseudolus in Stephen Sondheim's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1996), Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' "The Producers" (2001), and Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" (2018). His other Tony-nominated roles were for "Guys and Dolls" (1992), "The Nance" (2013), and "The Front Page" (2016)


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane made his film debut in "Ironweed" (1987). After years of supporting roles he starred in "The Birdcage" (1996), "Mouse Hunt" (1997), and "The Producers" (2005). He also voiced Timon, the wise-cracking meerkat, in the Disney animated film "The Lion King" (1994). In television, he has received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his roles on "Frasier", "Mad About You", "Modern Family", and "The Good Wife". He received his first Emmy Award for "Only Murders in the Building", after a record-breaking seven nominations in the guest actor category. Other television credits include "" (2016), "" (2020), and "The Gilded Age" (2022).


title: Nathan Lane

text: Nathan Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey, on February 3, 1956. His father, Daniel Joseph Lane, was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died in 1967 from alcoholism when Lane was eleven. His mother, Nora Veronica (Finnerty), was a housewife and secretary who suffered from bipolar disorder and died in 2000. He has two older brothers, Daniel Jr. and Robert. Lane's parents were Catholics, and all of his grandparents were Irish immigrants. He was named after his uncle, a Jesuit priest. Lane attended Catholic schools in Jersey City, including Jesuit-run St. Peter's Preparatory School, where he was voted Best Actor in 1974, and years later received the 2011 Prep Hall of Fame Professional Achievement Award.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Accepted to Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia on a drama scholarship, he was accompanied on what was supposed to be his first day there by his older brother Dan. Discovering that the scholarship would not cover enough of his expenses, he decided to leave, and work for a year to earn some money. His brother said, "I remember him saying to me, 'College is for people who don't know what they want to do.'" Because there already was a Joseph Lane registered with Actors' Equity, he changed his name to Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the musical "Guys and Dolls". He moved to New York City where, after a long struggle, his career began to take off, first with some brief success in the world of stand-up comedy with partner Patrick Stack, and later with Off-Broadway productions at Second Stage Theatre, the Roundabout Theatre, and the Manhattan Theatre Club. He made his Broadway debut in a 1982 revival of Noël Coward's "Present Laughter" as Roland Maule (Drama Desk nomination) with George C. Scott, Kate Burton, Dana Ivey, Bette Henritze, Elizabeth Hubbard, Jim Piddock, and Christine Lahti.


title: Nathan Lane

text: His second Broadway appearance was in the 1983 musical "Merlin", starring Chita Rivera and magician Doug Henning. This was followed by "Wind in the Willows" as Mr. Toad, "Some Americans Abroad" at Lincoln Center, and the national tour of Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound".


title: Nathan Lane

text: Off-Broadway productions included "Love" (the musical version of Murray Schisgal's "Luv"), "Measure for Measure" directed by Joseph Papp in Central Park, for which he received the St. Clair Bayfield Award, "The Common Pursuit", "The Film Society", "In a Pig's Valise", "She Stoops to Conquer", "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He also appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in "The School for Scandal" and John Guare's "Moon Over Miami."


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 1991, Lane appeared with George C. Scott again in a revival of Paul Osborne's "On Borrowed Time" at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway. In 1992, he starred in the hit revival of "Guys and Dolls", playing Nathan Detroit, the character who lent him his name, opposite Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince. For this performance, he received his first Tony nomination, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1992, he won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.


title: Nathan Lane

text: His professional association with his close friend the playwright Terrence McNally, whom he met in 1987, includes roles in "The Lisbon Traviata" (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards, and Outer Critics Circle nomination), "Bad Habits", "Lips Together, Teeth Apart", "Love! Valour! Compassion!" (Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), "Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams," which opened in 2005 (Drama Desk nomination), "The Last Mile" on PBS Great Performances, and the film version of "Frankie and Johnny".


title: Nathan Lane

text: The early 1990s began a stretch of successful Broadway shows for Lane. In 1993, he portrayed Sid Caesar-like Max Prince in Neil Simon's "Laughter on the 23rd Floor", inspired by Simon's early career writing sketches for "Your Show of Shows". In 1996, he starred in the hit revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1998, he appeared Off-Broadway in Jon Robin Baitz's revised 1984 comedy, "Mizlansky/Zilinsky or 'Schmucks'."


title: Nathan Lane

text: His association with Stephen Sondheim began with the workshop of "Assassins." in 1989. In 1999, he appeared with Victor Garber in the workshop of "Wise Guys" (later retitled "Road Show"). His collaboration with Sondheim continued when Lane revised the original book for and starred in the Broadway debut of the composer's "The Frogs" at Lincoln Center in 2004. The Sondheim song, "Little Dream," in the film "The Birdcage," for which Lane received his first Golden Globe nomination"," was supposedly written especially for him. The film, an American remake of the classic French farce "La Cage aux Folles", was directed by Mike Nichols with a screenplay by Elaine May, and starred Robin Williams, Lane, and Gene Hackman, and went on to be a big success. This was followed by the dark comedy "Mouse Hunt", one of the first films to come out of the newly formed DreamWorks Studios, in which he co-starred with British comedian Lee Evans and Christopher Walken.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 1994, Lane voiced Timon, the meerkat, in Disney's blockbuster animated film "The Lion King" and reprised the role in its sequels. In 1995, Lane voiced the meerkat in the early episodes of "Timon & Pumbaa". In 1995, he played the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz in Concert" at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT). In 1999, he appeared in the Encores! concert revival of "Do Re Mi" at City Center"." That same year he also voiced the role of Snowbell in the family film "Stuart Little", opposite his "Life With Mikey" co-star Michael J. Fox. He is known for his voice work in two Disney animated series, "Teacher's Pet" and "Timon & Pumbaa", as well as "George and Martha" on HBO. He received Daytime Emmy Awards for "Teacher's Pet" and "Timon and Pumbaa" and a nomination for "George and Martha". He has hosted "Saturday Night Live" and The Tony Awards (once as host for the 50th anniversary telecast, and three times as co-host, with Glenn Close and Gregory Hines; Rosie O'Donnell; and Matthew Broderick respectively).


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane starred in the Roundabout revival of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" as Sheridan Whiteside, with Jean Smart and Harriet Harris in 2000.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 2001, he starred as Max Bialystock in the blockbuster musical version of Mel Brooks's "The Producers", a role that earned him his second Tony as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. The following year he would go on to reprise his role as Snowbell in "Stuart Little 2". He then appeared as Vincent Crummles in a film adaptation of "Nicholas Nickleby", for which the cast received the Ensemble Acting award from the National Board of Review. In 2004, he replaced Richard Dreyfuss in "The Producers" in the West End. Dreyfuss was let go just a week before the show's first preview at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Lane went on to win the Olivier Award as Best Actor in a Musical. His performance in the film version, opposite Broadway co-star, Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom, earned him his second Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. In 2003 he starred Off-Broadway in "Trumbo: Red, White, and Blacklisted".


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 2005, Lane rejoined Broderick for a successful limited run of "The Odd Couple". In 2006, he took on a primarily dramatic role in a revival of Simon Gray's "Butley", having played the role to great success at The Huntington Theater in Boston in 2003. He and Broderick received adjacent stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a joint ceremony on January 9, 2006, and were immortalized in wax as Max and Leo at Madame Tussauds Museum in New York City on January 16, 2009. In 2008, he played the President of the United States in the David Mamet political satire, "November", directed by Joe Mantello. This was followed by the critically acclaimed 2009 revival of "Waiting for Godot" (Outer Critics Circle nomination) in which he played Estragon opposite Bill Irwin's Vladimir. He was a 2008 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 2010, Lane starred in the musical version of "The Addams Family" as Gomez (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations). That year he also received a Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater. Committed to starring in a revival of the Eugene O'Neill play "The Iceman Cometh" at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2012, Lane assumed the role of Hickey, with Brian Dennehy playing the role of Larry Slade in a production directed by the Goodman's Artistic Director, Robert Falls. Receiving rave reviews, it won six Jeff Awards, including Best Ensemble, Director, and Production, and is the most successful play to date in the theater's history. In the spring of 2013, Lane returned to Broadway in "The Nance", a Lincoln Center production of a new play by Douglas Carter Beane that was directed by Jack O'Brien. For this performance, he received Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations and won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 2013 Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. The play aired on PBS "Live From Lincoln Center" in 2014.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In autumn 2014, he appeared in an all-star ensemble of Terrence McNally's revised and updated "It's Only a Play", with F. Murray Abraham, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, Rupert Grint, Megan Mullally, and Micah Stock. The show became one of the biggest hits of the season. In February 2015 he reprised the role of Hickey in the Robert Falls production of "The Iceman Cometh" to great acclaim at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He later returned to the Broadway run of "It's Only a Play". In 2015, he received the Eugene O' Neill Theater Center Monte Cristo Award for his body of work. In March 2016, he opened the play "White Rabbit, Red Rabbit" Off-Broadway. In fall of 2016, he returned to Broadway to rave reviews in an all-star revival of Hecht and MacArthur's "The Front Page", directed by Jack O'Brien and produced by Scott Rudin. He played the ruthless editor Walter Burns opposite John Slattery as Hildy Johnson and John Goodman as Sheriff Hartman, for which he received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award nominations. Following that he played Roy Cohn with Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter in the revival of "Angels in America," directed by Marianne Elliott at the Lyttlelton Theatre of the National Theatre of Great Britain. Lane reprised his acclaimed portrayal on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre, and won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Play.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In March 2019, Lane starred in Taylor Mac's absurdist black comedy "" at the Booth Theatre directed by George C. Wolfe, which received seven Tony Award nominations including Best Play. It was his 24th Broadway show.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane has received seven Emmy Award nominations for his guest appearances on "Frasier", "Mad About You", "Modern Family", "The Good Wife" and "Only Murders in the Building" for which he finally won. He has also made appearances on "Miami Vice", "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd", "Sex and the City", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "Absolutely Fabulous", "30 Rock", "Difficult People" and "The Blacklist".


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane played F. Lee Bailey in "", the first season of "American Crime Story", which premiered on the FX channel in February 2016. It received 22 Emmy nominations and went on to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. He played the role of Lewis Michener on Showtime's "" which premiered April 26, 2020 and ran for one season. He has recurring roles in the Hulu series, "Only Murders in the Building", starring Steve Martin and Martin Short, and the HBO series, "The Gilded Age", written by Julian Fellowes.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane is co-starring in Ari Aster's upcoming A24 film, "Beau Is Afraid" alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Ryan and Patti LuPone. He is also co-starring in another A24 film, "Fucking Identical Twins", directed by Larry Charles and written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp based on their Upright Citizens Brigade musical stage show which is a twisted take on "The Parent Trap". Jackson and Sharp will play the twins with Lane and Megan Mullally as the parents. It also stars Bowen Yang and Megan Thee Stallion. He will also be part of the voice cast for Spellbound a new animated film from Skydance.


title: Nathan Lane

text: In 2023, Lane is set to return to the Broadway stage in "Pictures from Home", a play adapted from the photo memoir by Larry Sultan. The production will be directed by Bartlett Sher and is also starring Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker at the Studio 54 theatre.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane has had an extensive career in film, television and the theatre. He has appeared in such films as "The Lion King" (1994), "The Birdcage" (1996), "Mouse Hunt" (1997), "Nicholas Nickleby" (2002), and the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "The Producers" (2005). He is also known for numerous guest roles including "Frasier", "Mad About You", "30 Rock", "Absolutely Fabulous", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", "The Blacklist" and recurring roles on "Modern Family" and "The Good Wife". He has also received critical praise for his roles as F. Lee Bailey in the limited series "" (2016) and in the 2020 Showtime series "" as Det. Lewis Michener. His roles in theatre range from musical comedies, "Guys and Dolls" (1992), "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1996), and "The Producers" (2001) to dramatic roles in the work of Terrence McNally, Jon Robin Baitz, and Simon Gray, as well as revivals and new plays such as "November" (2008), "Waiting for Godot" (2009), "The Nance" (2013), "It's Only a Play" and "The Iceman Cometh" (2015), "The Front Page" (2016), "Angels in America" (2018) and "" (2019).


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane has received six Tony Award nominations for his work on Broadway winning three times for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1996), "The Producers" (2001), and "Angels in America" (2018). Also for his work in theatre he has received six Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Obies, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama League Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for "The Nance", the Theatre World John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater, the Eugene O'Neill Monte Cristo Award, the New Dramatists Career Achievement Award, the Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award, and the Laurence Olivier Award.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane has received two Golden Globe Award nominations for "The Birdcage" and "The Producers", the National Board of Review Award for Ensemble Acting for "Nicholas Nickleby" and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Supporting Actor and for Outstanding Performance by a Cast which they won for "The Birdcage". For his work on television Lane has received seven Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work in guest starring roles on "Frasier", "Mad About You", "Modern Family", and "The Good Wife" and won for "Only Murders in the Building". He has received two Daytime Emmy Awards for his voice work in "Timon & Pumbaa" and "Teacher's Pet", as well as a nomination for "George and Martha" for HBO. He has also received the People's Choice Award for Favorite New Actor in a Comedy and an American Comedy Award for "The Birdcage" and a nomination for "Jeffrey".


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane says that when he told his mother at age 21 that he was gay, she said, "I'd rather you were dead", to which he replied, "I knew you'd understand." He then joked that "Once I got her head out of the oven, everything went fine."


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane came out publicly in 1999 after the killing of Matthew Shepard, and has been a long-time board member of and fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. He was honored with the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vito Russo Award, The Trevor Project Hero Award, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation Making A Difference Award for his work in the LGBT community in 2015.


title: Nathan Lane

text: Lane has made several critical statements against Republican Party figures. He jokingly compared Paul Ryan to the "Wicked Witch of the West", due to Ryan's lack of support for Medicaid. In a 2018 interview about playing Roy Cohn in the Broadway revival of Angels in America, Lane accused Donald Trump of being a liar, stating: "Really, what you learn is what [Trump] learned from Roy Cohn: There are certain tactics that are very familiar, that Trump picked up from him. You know, always go on the attack. The counterattack. Hit the accuser ten times harder and deflect. Never admit defeat. And outright lying if all else fails." Lane was an active supporter of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, hosting fundraisers for the Democratic Party.


title: Nathan Lane

text: On November 17, 2015, he married his partner of then 18 years, theater producer and writer Devlin Elliott. They reside in Manhattan and East Hampton.


title: Billie Piper

text: Billie Paul Piper (born Leian Paul Piper; 22 September 1982) is an English actress and former singer. She initially gained recognition as a singer after releasing her debut single "Because We Want To" at age 15, which made her the youngest woman to ever enter at number one on the UK Singles Chart. Her follow-up single "Girlfriend" also entered at number one. In 1998, Piper released her debut studio album, "Honey to the B," which was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her second studio album, "Walk of Life", was released in 2000 and spawned her third number one single, "Day & Night". In 2003, Piper announced that she had abandoned her music career to focus on an acting career.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper appeared in the BBC One sci-fi series "Doctor Who" as Rose Tyler, companion to the Doctor as a regular between 2005 and 2006, and additionally in 2008, 2010, and 2013. She starred as Belle de Jour in the television drama series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" (2007–2011), as Brona Croft/Lily in the Showtime horror series "Penny Dreadful" (2014–2016), and as Karen Mars in Netflix Original series "Collateral" (2018), for which she was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress. Piper co-created and starred in the Sky Atlantic series "I Hate Suzie" (2020–present), for which she earned a BAFTA nomination for a Best Actress in 2021.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper has starred in five plays since 2007 and won the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her performance in "Yerma", described as a "generation's best". She went on to win a total of six Best Actress awards for that one performance, including the Olivier Award, making Piper the only actor to have won six out of an available six Best Actress awards for a single performance.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper was born in Swindon, Wiltshire on 22 September 1982. Her first name, Leian, was legally changed to Billie on 25 April 1983 by her parents, Mandy Kane Kent and Paul Victor Piper. She has one younger brother, Charley, and two younger sisters, Harley, and Elle. She studied at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London and Bradon Forest School in Purton, Wiltshire. At age five, she started dance classes and just two years later, Piper started off in soft-drink commercials for American TV before appearing as an extra in "Evita" in 1996, starring Madonna.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper's career began when she was selected to appear on the Saturday-morning children's television show "Scratchy & Co." She later landed a role in a television commercial promoting the pop magazine "Smash Hits". She was offered a record deal at the age of 15, and in 1998, became the youngest artist ever to debut at number one in the UK Singles Chart with "Because We Want To", released under the stage mononym "Billie". Her follow-up single "Girlfriend" also debuted at number one.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper's debut album "Honey to the B" was released immediately afterwards, and entered and peaked at number 14 on the UK Albums Chart, selling more than 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom alone along with a platinum certification, and a double-platinum certification in New Zealand, where it peaked at number three on the New Zealand Albums Chart. However, "Honey to the B" found limited success in other territories, such as Australia, where it entered and peaked at number 31 on the ARIA Albums Chart despite the success of "Honey to the Bee", and in the US it went almost completely unnoticed, peaking at number 17 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart.


title: Billie Piper

text: At the 1998 "Smash Hits" Poll Winners' party, Piper was nominated for Best New Act (for which she came second, it being won by B*Witched) and won Princess of Pop (she was the first to win this award). She then released "She Wants You" as the third single from the album. The song reached number three. "Honey to the Bee" was released as the fourth single from the album; like the previous single, it reached number three. At the same time, "She Wants You" was released in the US, reaching number 9 on the "Hot Club Dance Play" chart.


title: Billie Piper

text: In 1999, Piper was nominated for two BRIT Awards and won two awards at the 1999 "Smash Hits" Poll Winners' party, although she was reduced to tears at the latter ceremony after being booed by fans of Ritchie Neville, whom she was dating at the time. She then started to tour and release in Asia. The singles and the album were released during mid-to-late 1999. In August of that year, the follow-up to "Because We Want To" was released in Japan, a single comprising "Girlfriend" and "She Wants You" combined. She recorded a song for "" titled "Makin' My Way (Any Way That I Can)".


title: Billie Piper

text: During that time, Piper recorded her second album. She decided to release further records under her full name of Billie Piper. She returned to the Singles Chart in May 2000 with her third number-one single "Day & Night". She waited until September to release "Something Deep Inside", which reached number four, but her success waned. In October 2000, Piper released her second album, "Walk of Life", which reached No. 14 in the UK Album Chart, but quickly fell off the charts and was certified silver in the UK. The album charted in two other countries: New Zealand, where it reached No. 17, and Australia, where it peaked at No. 23. In Piper's autobiography, she states that the album was a "commercial bomb". The song "Walk of Life", the final single off the album, was released in December 2000 and reached No. 25 in the UK Singles Chart.


title: Billie Piper

text: In February 2001, Piper appeared in court to testify against a woman named Juliet Peters. Peters was charged with, and eventually convicted of, stalking as well as making numerous threats against Piper and members of her family. Peters received psychiatric treatment as part of her sentence. According to her autobiography, Piper was reluctant about the court case, but was pushed by her parents and her label. She also stated in the book that this was why "The Tide Is High" was not released as a single, writing: "The court case succeeded in doing what I alone could not cutting the ties. Without it I might have been tempted back."


title: Billie Piper

text: In January 2007, BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles started a campaign to get "Honey to the Bee" back into the top 100 on download sales as a way of testing out new chart rules that favour download sales. The campaign was successful, with "Honey to the Bee" re-entering the official UK singles chart at No. 17, eight years after it was first released.


title: Billie Piper

text: In 2004, Piper appeared in the films "The Calcium Kid" and "Things to do Before You're Thirty". Shortly before starting work on "Doctor Who", she had a starring role in the horror film "Spirit Trap", released in August 2005 to poor reviews. In November 2005, she starred as Hero in a BBC adaptation of "Much Ado About Nothing", updated for the modern-day in a similar manner to the "Canterbury Tales" (2003) series in which she featured, with Hero now being a weather presenter in a television station.


title: Billie Piper

text: In 2005, "Doctor Who" was resurrected after a sixteen-year absence from TV. Piper was cast as Rose Tyler, a travelling companion to the ninth incarnation of The Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston). Piper won the Most Popular Actress category at the 2005 and 2006 National Television Awards for her work on "Doctor Who". BBC News named her one of its "Faces of the Year" for 2005, primarily due to her success in "Doctor Who". At "The South Bank Show" Awards in January 2006, she was awarded "The Times" Breakthrough Award for her successful transition from singing to acting. In March, the Television and Radio Industries Club named her as the best new TV talent at their annual awards ceremony. In September, she was named Best Actress at the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards.


title: Billie Piper

text: After the completion of the very successful first series of the revamped "Doctor Who", the British media regularly released conflicting reports about how long Piper would be staying with the show. In March 2006, she claimed that she would continue on "Doctor Who" into its third series in 2007. In May, however, she was reported to be considering quitting the series, although she did express an interest in playing a female version of the Doctor in the future (possibly related to a proposed "Doctor Who" spin-off series about Rose, which was later dropped). In June, the BBC announced that she was to depart in "Doomsday" (2006), the final episode of the second series. Her decision to leave had been made a year previously, but had not yet been made public. Although Piper was absent in the 2007 series, her character Rose was mentioned several times and seen in archive footage in The Runaway Bride.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper starred as Hannah Baxter in "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" (2007–2012), an ITV2 adaptation of Brooke Magnanti's "The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl", a memoir detailing the life of a high-class prostitute who adopted "Belle de Jour" as her pseudonym, which aired from September 2007. As part of her preparation for the role, Piper met the memoir's author two years before her identity as a research scientist was revealed in a Sunday newspaper: "I absolutely had to meet the person behind the words to be able to take the part... people did ask me about her and I just had to smile, to avoid giving anything away."In November 2007, the BBC confirmed that she would reprise her role as Rose Tyler in the fourth series of "Doctor Who" for three episodes. Later, it was confirmed by Russell T. Davies in "Doctor Who Magazine" that this return had been planned since she left. The series began in April 2008, and after several cameos, Piper made her official return as Rose in the series four final episodes "Turn Left", "The Stolen Earth", and "Journey's End". She did not initially state whether she would be reprising the role again. Interviewed on "Doctor Who Confidential", she commented that "it's never really the end for the Doctor and Rose, but it's certainly the end for the foreseeable future".


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper completed work on two stand-alone television productions. In the first, a BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman's historical novel "The Ruby in the Smoke" which was broadcast in December 2006, she played protagonist Sally Lockhart, a Victorian orphan. The BBC planned to film all four of Pullman's Sally Lockhart novels, with Piper continuing in the role in "The Shadow in the North", which was shown in December 2007. Piper also appeared as Fanny Price in an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Mansfield Park", screened on ITV1 in March 2007. This was her first acting role on television for a broadcaster other than the BBC. She then provided voice-overs for various television commercials, including one for Comfort fabric-softener airing in June 2007.


title: Billie Piper

text: The second series of "Secret Diary of a Call Girl", with Piper again in the starring role, started filming in May 2008, during which a body double was hired to hide Piper's pregnancy during the sex scenes. Piper was also quoted during this time as worrying that she may have "ruined her future career" due to the nature of the topless scenes and other sexual scenes required. The third series began airing in January 2010. For the third and fourth series Piper was credited as executive producer. In January 2010, tying in with the broadcast of the third series and following on from the real Belle de Jour confirming her real identity, ITV2 broadcast an interview special, "Billie and the Real Belle Bare All", which saw Piper meeting with Dr Brooke Magnanti on camera for the first time.


title: Billie Piper

text: She reprised her role as Rose Tyler in "The End of Time", the last of the 2008–2010 "Doctor Who" specials, as a younger version of Rose Tyler (specifically 3 months before her initial meeting with the Ninth Doctor in 2005 episode "Rose"). She also shared the role of Betty with Sue Johnston in the two-part TV adaptation of "A Passionate Woman", screened on BBC 1 in April 2010. In May 2011, it was announced that Piper would join the cast of a romance-comedy film directed by Robin Sheppard titled "Truth about Lies". In January 2013, Piper stated on "The Graham Norton Show" that she had not been asked to return for the 50th anniversary of "Doctor Who", however, the BBC announced in the following March that she would be returning in the special, titled "The Day of the Doctor", which was broadcast in November 2013. Despite being credited as Rose Tyler, Piper's actual role in the episode is the consciousness of "The Moment", a sentient weapon which takes on the form of Rose's "Bad Wolf" personality.


title: Billie Piper

text: On 11 May 2014, Showtime aired a new horror series called "Penny Dreadful" in which Piper plays Brona Croft, a poor Irish immigrant who is trying to escape a dark past. In the show's second series, Brona is resurrected by Victor Frankenstein as "Lily". She was nominated for Best TV Supporting Actress at the 2015 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. The show was renewed for a third and final series, which she began filming on 17 September 2015.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper returned to the role of Rose Tyler alongside David Tennant in three stories that form the second volume of "" audio drama series from Big Finish Productions. One story also featured Camille Coduri reprising her role as Rose's mother Jackie Tyler. The set was released in November 2017. It was later announced that Piper would be headlining her own audio drama titled "Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon". The box set featured four stories with Rose Tyler alongside her parents Jackie (Coduri) and Pete Tyler (Shaun Dingwall) as well as featuring Clive from the episode "Rose", played by his original actor Mark Benton. The first volume was released in September 2019 with two more expected in October 2022 and September 2023.


title: Billie Piper

text: In 2019, Piper wrote, starred in and made her directorial debut with the "anti-romcom" "Rare Beasts", before appearing alongside Sally Hawkins, Alice Lowe, and David Thewlis in "Eternal Beauty", directed by Craig Roberts. The following year, in August 2020, Piper co-created and starred in the critically acclaimed Sky Atlantic series "I Hate Suzie". The series was also co-created and written by "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" creator Lucy Prebble. Piper portrays the titular Suzie Pickles, a former child screen star whose life and career are turned upside down by a compromising phone hack. Critics noted her own experience of having been a prodigious young singer-turned-actress who becomes famous at a young age will no doubt have informed her new role as Pickles. "The Guardian" gave it a five-star review, describing Piper's character as "nude, lewd and joyously off the rails" in "this scabrously funny drama". In March 2021, it was announced that Piper would appear in the film adaptation of a children's book called "Catherine Called Birdy".


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper made her stage debut in a touring production of Christopher Hampton's play "Treats", which opened in early 2007 in Windsor, Berkshire. "Treats" was to have ended its tour in the West End, at the Garrick Theatre, starting in February 2007 with previews. The play officially closed in May.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper played Carly in the UK premiere of Neil LaBute's play "Reasons to Be Pretty" at the Almeida Theatre, running from November 2011 to January 2012. It received critical acclaim from "The Guardian," "The Observer," "London Evening Standard," "Metro," "The Times," "The Telegraph," "Time Out," "The Arts Desk," "Daily Express" and "The Financial Times", all of which rated the production with a minimum of four stars. BBC Radio 4 described Piper as "fantastic, completely brilliant. Her performance is so convincing and moving, an absolutely terrific performance". The "Jewish Chronicle" hailed Piper's performance as second to none, being the best of the night, and stating that "no actor can cry more convincingly than Piper", giving the show four stars.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper made her National Theatre debut in "The Effect" by Lucy Prebble, which ran from November 2012 to February 2013. The play went on to become the most critically acclaimed show of the season and Piper was nominated for the "WhatsOnStage" Best Actress award for her work in "The Effect". The play was also nominated for Best New Play and Best Set Designer. Due to success and demand, the show was extended for a further month and an online petition was started for the show to be added to the National Theatre's Live Programming. In 2013, Piper was nominated for Best Actress at the Olivier Awards and Evening Standard Theatre Awards for "The Effect". Piper also starred in "Great Britain" at the Royal National Theatre in 2014. On 29 May 2014, Piper appeared alongside Ben Whishaw in the "Playhouse Presents" television special "Foxtrot."


title: Billie Piper

text: In 2016, Piper starred in an adaptation of Federico García Lorca's 1934 play "Yerma" at the Young Vic, written and directed by Simon Stone. Upon opening, the play received critical acclaim, mainly for Piper's performance. She was described as "earth-quaking" by "The Guardian" and "a generation's greatest performance" by "The Stage". "The Independent" described her as "shattering" with the reviewer admitting he found himself "still visibly shaking from its effects on the Tube home afterwards." "The Jewish Chronicle" proclaimed, "This is the performance to which [Piper's] previous excellent appearances on stage have been leading. She's one of those rare actresses who can be monumentally tragic and almost casually realistic at the same time." Conversely, "The Arts Desk" warned its readers that her performance was "an utterly grueling, almost unbearable 100 minutes." Piper won all six of the available Best Actress awards for that one performance, making it one of the most acclaimed and awarded stage performances in British theatre history, and making her the only actor to have picked up all six Best Actress awards for a single performance, including the coveted Olivier Award.


title: Billie Piper

text: On 31 August 2017, "Yerma" streamed live into more than 700 cinemas across the UK. Whilst ticket sales are yet to be confirmed, more than 100 cinemas confirmed they had sold out to capacity with many requesting encore copies. In an unprecedented event, after the live screening had finished, '#Yerma' trended on Twitter at number three, with some writers claiming Twitter had 'gone into complete meltdown' over Piper's performance. The play was streamed across the world from 21 September.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper reprised the performance in a limited run at New York's Park Avenue Armory during March and April 2018, her New York stage debut. She once again received unanimous critical praise. The "New York Times" said Piper's performance was "an unconditional victory" and "blisteringly powerful" awarding it five stars, whilst "Hollywood Reporter" found her "simply staggering" adding; "When the actress appears at the curtain call, looking emotionally and physical exhausted, you find yourself relieved that she's OK and concerned that she'll have to do it all over again the next night." "Time Out" likened Piper to an "angry beast" warning that her "astonishing" performance inflicted psychological-like emotions on the audience. NBC's Katie Englehart said, "Piper is so devastating I almost vomited in my seat – that doesn't sound like an endorsement but it is." "Vogue" hailed Piper as "one of the great talents of her generation" and described her performance as "astonishing, raw, feral and terrifying." The AM New York critic claimed to be left "gasping for air" whilst the "New York Stage Review" found Piper's "downward spiral into abyss utterly harrowing and blazingly remarkable."


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper married television presenter Chris Evans in a secret ceremony at the Little Church of the West in Paradise, Nevada near Las Vegas in May 2001 after six months of dating. Their marriage attracted much comment because Piper was 18 and Evans was 35. The couple separated in 2004, and divorced in May 2007.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper married actor Laurence Fox on 31 December 2007, at St Mary's Church in Easebourne, West Sussex. They have two sons: Winston James was born on 21 October 2008, and Eugene Pip was born on 5 April 2012. By 24 March 2016, the pair had separated after eight years of marriage. No third party was involved in the separation. On 12 May 2016, Piper and Fox divorced.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper began dating Johnny Lloyd, the frontman of Tribes, in 2016. Their daughter, Tallulah, was born on 2 January 2019.


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper is a Labour supporter and has condemned former Prime Minister Boris Johnson with a photo of Piper posted on Instagram and Twitter wearing a Tesco parody t-shirt saying: "Tories, very little help".


title: Billie Piper

text: Piper has won and been nominated for more than 70 recognised awards. During her musical career, she was nominated for two BRIT Awards in 1999. In 2005 and 2006, she won two National Television Awards for Best Actress for her acting work in "Doctor Who". She has also been nominated for two British Academy Television Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress for her performances in the television dramas "Collateral" (2018) and "I Hate Suzie" (2020–present), respectively.


title: Billie Piper

text: For her role in the 2016 production of Federico García Lorca's "Yerma", Piper has won a total of six Best Actress awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award, and is now the only actor to have earned all of the currently available UK theatre Best Actress awards for a single performance.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Supergirl is an American superhero television series developed by Ali Adler, Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg that aired on CBS and later The CW from October 26, 2015 to November 9, 2021. It is based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. The series features Melissa Benoist in the title role. Supergirl is a costumed superheroine who is Superman's cousin and one of the last surviving Kryptonians from the planet Krypton. Starting with its second season, the show was retroactively established to be set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the franchise.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The series was officially picked up on May 6, 2015, after receiving a series commitment in September 2014 and received a full season order on November 30, 2015. Since the second season, the series has aired on The CW. The show has received generally positive reviews from critics, who have praised the creative direction, the performances, and the themes addressed.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth from Krypton as a thirteen year old by her parents Zor-El and Alura. Kara was meant to protect her infant cousin, Kal-El, but her spacecraft was knocked off course and sent into the Phantom Zone, where it stayed for 24 years. By the time the spacecraft crash landed on Earth, Kal-El had grown up and become Superman. The series begins twelve years later when Kara is learning to embrace her own superhuman powers as a Kryptonian and has adopted the superheroine alias "Supergirl".


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the first season, Kara is forced to reveal her powers, and becomes National City's protector. In the process, she discovers that hundreds of the criminals her mother imprisoned are hiding on Earth, including her aunt Astra and Astra's husband Non. Kara works with her adoptive sister Alex Danvers to fight these criminals, alongside the Green Martian J'onn J'onzz, her cousin's friend James Olsen, and tech genius Winn Schott.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the second season, Kara and her allies deal with feuds between Earth's native populace and extraterrestrial community, and investigate the shadowy organization Project Cadmus, masterminded by Lillian Luthor, mother of Lex Luthor. Meanwhile, Kara befriends Lillian's adoptive daughter, Lena Luthor, the new CEO of LuthorCorp, and struggles with romantic feelings for recent Earth arrival Mon-El, a princely survivor from Krypton's neighboring planet Daxam, whose parents wish to reclaim him. James becomes the masked vigilante Guardian; Alex begins dating Maggie Sawyer; and J'onn befriends a younger Martian, M'gann, from the White Martian race that killed his people.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the third season, Kara struggles with the loss of Mon-El after he is forced to leave Earth. When Mon-El returns, he reveals that he has time-traveled to the 31st century and founded the Legion, as well as married Imra Ardeen. J'onn discovers his father M'yrnn J'onzz is alive and Alex deals with her heartbreak after breaking up with Maggie. Kara and Alex's new friend, Samantha Arias, discovers she is also a Kryptonian survivor, and begins a transformation from a loving single mother into the world-killing weapon known as Reign.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the fourth season, Kara deals with a new wave of anti-extraterrestrial prejudice secretly instigated by Lex Luthor from prison, forcing her to fight for the civil and political rights of aliens. Ben Lockwood, a former college professor who suffered a series of personal tragedies at the hands of extraterrestrials, forms a human-first group called the Children of Liberty to end all aliens. Meanwhile, in the nation of Kasnia, a clone of Kara dubbed "" is trained by its military to fight Supergirl at Lex's request. Kara and Alex clash with the DEO's new addition, Col. Lauren Haley, who was sent to monitor the DEO's progress under Alex's direction. Col. Haley and the President try to force Supergirl to reveal her identity, and causing the feud to escalate when she refuses.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the fifth season, CatCo. gets a new editor-in-chief in the form of Andrea Rojas. Kara and her friends find themselves facing a new threat known as Leviathan. Following a multiverse-destroying Crisis, Kara adjusts to her new life on the newly created "Earth-Prime", while being forced to work under Lex as Leviathan continues their covert operations under Gamemnae.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In the sixth and final season, Lex attempts to finish what the Anti-Monitor started after the latter failed in conquering the multiverse. He successfully imprisons Kara in the Phantom Zone as her friends figure out a way to bring her back out. Kara discovers her father in the Phantom Zone. After their rescue, Supergirl's group must contend with the 5th Dimension Imp Nyxlygsptlnz who also escaped the Phantom Zone and is seeking the different Totems to get revenge on her father King Brpxz. Lex Luthor soon gets involved with Nyxlygsptlnz.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: By September 2014, Warner Bros. Television was looking to create a television series centered around Supergirl. Executive producers for the series include Greg Berlanti (also a creator/producer for "Arrow" and "The Flash"), Ali Adler, who are both writing the script, and Berlanti Productions' Sarah Schechter. DC Comics' Geoff Johns is also expected to be part of the project. Titles under consideration for the series included "Super" and "Girl". Berlanti confirmed the show shortly after, and stated it was in development and had yet to be pitched to networks. Berlanti's take on the character was based on the actress Ginger Rogers, who he felt "had to do everything Fred Astaire did but backward and in heels"; this comparison "really resonated" with executive producer Sarah Schechter. On September 20, it was announced that CBS had landed "Supergirl" with a series commitment, with an expected premiere in 2015 of the 2015–16 television season. In January 2015, CBS Entertainment Chairman Nina Tassler revealed the show would be a procedural, saying, "There will be [crime] cases, but what [executive producers] Ali Adler and Greg Berlanti pitched was a real series arc for her. The beauty of it is now with shows like "The Good Wife" and "Madam Secretary", you can have serialized story elements woven into a case of the week. She's a crime solver, so she's going to have to solve a crime."


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In January 2015, it was announced by "The Hollywood Reporter" that Melissa Benoist would star as Supergirl. Benoist later revealed that auditioning for the part "was a long, drawn-out, three-month process"; she was the first actress looked at for the role, although Claire Holt and Gemma Atkinson were also considered. In March 2015, Blake Neely, composer for "Arrow" and "The Flash", revealed he would be composing for "Supergirl". The show was officially picked up to series on May 6, 2015. It was originally set to premiere in November 2015, before being moved up to October 26, 2015. The pilot episode was screened at San Diego Comic-Con International 2015 on July 8 and 11, 2015. In July 2015, Adler spoke on how much influence Superman would have on the show, saying, "Our prototype is the way the president is seen on "Veep". It's certainly [inspired by] so much of what Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character goes through. Ultimately, this is a show about Supergirl and we really want to see it through her lens." On November 30, 2015, CBS ordered an additional seven episodes of "Supergirl", for a full season of 20 episodes.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: On May 12, 2016, Warner Bros. Television announced that the series had been renewed for a second season of 22 episodes and would move to The CW. The season debuted in October 2016. With the move of the production to Vancouver, it was unclear if Calista Flockhart would remain with the series, as her original contract stipulated that she work near her home in Los Angeles. The CW president Mark Pedowitz said Flockhart wanted to remain with the series and that "We're in ongoing discussions... we're happy to have her in [in whatever capacity] works out." Flockhart ultimately reached a deal to be recurring in the second season, with the production flying her to Vancouver every few weeks to film material.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: On January 8, 2017, The CW renewed the series for a third season, which debuted on October 9, 2017. The third season saw Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner become the series' executive producers and co-showrunners along with Kreisberg until his firing, following Adler's departure; Adler will remain an executive consultant for the series. Both Queller and Rovner joined "Supergirl" midway through the first season as co-executive producer and consulting producer, respectively, with Rovner promoted to executive producer ahead of the second season.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: On April 2, 2018, The CW renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on October 14, 2018. On January 31, 2019, The CW renewed the series for a fifth season. The fifth season premiered on October 6, 2019. On January 7, 2020, the CW renewed the series for a sixth season, which premiered on March 30, 2021. On September 22, 2020, it was announced that the series would conclude after its sixth season.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The costume for Supergirl was created by Colleen Atwood, who also designed the costumes for "Arrow" and "The Flash". Benoist stated that she is aware of the costume worn by Kara in more modern depictions of the comics, and expressed that the often "micro-mini hemline" of the skirt could be "a little daunting ... but that's good. I like being pushed." Promotional photos of Benoist wearing Atwood's design were released on March 6, 2015. Atwood indicated that she wanted to "embrace the past ... but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today." Atwood later revealed details about the costume such as the cape being fastened to an undersuit so as not to pull the costume and that the fabric used was Eurojersey. The reveal of the Martian Manhunter costume in "Human For a Day" was created through visual effects, though a physical version was created to appear in later episodes, with it proving to be one of the most challenging costumes for the costume team.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Reception of the Supergirl costume upon its reveal was mixed. "Entertainment Weekly" Natalie Abrams commented that the new look of the costume looks and feels different in a good way. The new costume avoids exposing the character's midriff, as it does in the Michael Turner version of the costume from the comics, as well as having Benoist wear tights underneath the skirt with over-the-knee boots. Abrams compared the texture of the costume to that worn by Henry Cavill as Superman in "Man of Steel", as well as the positioning of the cape on the suit, and the decision to do away with the bright blue and red color scheme. Andrew Dyce, from Screen Rant, found the new costume to perfectly balance itself between classic nostalgia and modernism. "The Washington Post" noted that Atwood's design was successful, praising her ability to take "cartoon-y tints" and moving them to darker tones.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: "E! Online" was less impressed with the design, negatively comparing it to a "cheap Halloween costume", with washed out colors, and not buying into the "gritty, 'street style'" look Atwood was intending. "TV Guide" questioned Atwood's design, and noted that although the promotional image has Benoist trying to appear as a powerful hero, the thigh-high boots and pleated skirt comes across as a "model advertising a moderately-priced Halloween costume".


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In February 2015, it was announced that Andrew Kreisberg, co-creator of "Arrow" and "The Flash", had joined the series as a writer and executive producer; and "Arrow" / "The Flash" and "Smallville" alum Glen Winter was announced to be directing the pilot. Principal photography for the pilot took place from March 4 to March 29, 2015. Filming locations included the Warner Bros. lot, where "Lois & Clark" was shot. Each episode cost approximately $3 million to broadcast, which is one of the highest license fees ever for a first-year show.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The second season was filmed in Vancouver, rather than Los Angeles where the first season was shot. This was done to reduce the high production costs of the series, one of the issues that made CBS wary to renew the series on their network. Filming for the third season began in Vancouver on July 6, 2017, and ended on April 28, 2018. On March 12, 2020, Warner Bros. Television shut down production on the series due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Season six was scheduled to begin filming on September 28, 2020 and conclude on April 5, 2021, but has been temporarily postponed because of delays in receiving COVID-19 test results for the cast and crew.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In Canada, "Supergirl" aired in a sim-subbed simulcast on Global with the American broadcast in the first season; the second season saw it move to Showcase in the same arrangement.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The series premiered on October 29, 2015, in the United Kingdom on Sky One. The series premiered in Australia on December 6, 2015, on FOX8.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season a 92% approval rating from critics with an average rating of 7.53/10, based on 72 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Melissa Benoist shines as Superman's plucky little cousin in "Supergirl", a family-friendly comic-book adaptation that ditches cynicism for heart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, reported "generally favorable reviews" with an assigned score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics. Cliff Wheatley of IGN gave the pilot episode a 7/10, praising Melissa Benoist's performance as Kara and the fun take on the Superman mythos.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a 92% approval rating from critics with an average rating of 7.88/10, based on 20 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "The arrival of the more famous cousin in "Supergirl" does nothing to detract from the show's lead, who continues to deliver strength, action, and relatability." Metacritic reported "universal acclaim" with an assigned score of 81 out of 100, based on reviews from 4 critics.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The third season holds an 78% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The critical consensus states: "Heavier themes lead to higher stakes, but "Supergirl" gives its eponymous heroine and her fellow supers plenty of room for growth, creating a well-balanced, engaging third season."


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The fourth season reports an 87% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.27/10 based on 7 reviews. The website's critic consensus reads: "Though it's a little tonally inconsistent, "Supergirl"'s fourth season still soars thanks to strong, relevant writing brought to life by its charming cast."


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In November 2014, Berlanti expressed interest in "Supergirl" existing in the Arrowverse, the same universe as his other series "Arrow" and "The Flash", and in January 2015, The CW president Mark Pedowitz revealed that he was also open to a crossover between the series and networks (due to Berlanti executive producing all three and The CW being co-owned by CBS). However, CBS Entertainment chair Nina Tassler stated that month that "those two shows are on a different network. So I think we'll keep "Supergirl" to ourselves for a while." In August 2015, Tassler revealed that while there were no plans at the time to do crossover storylines, the three series would have crossover promotions.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Pedowitz regretted passing on the series when presented it in mid-2014, saying, "We hadn't launched "The Flash" yet, we weren't ready to take on another DC property. In hindsight we probably should've gone that direction...Sometimes you lose great shows." In January 2016, during the Television Critics Association press tour, he said that The CW was still interested in a crossover with "Supergirl" if the producers could find a way to do it, and Berlanti added that while no official conversations had taken place, internal ones had concerning how a crossover would work. He also noted that for a crossover to happen during "Supergirl" first season, it would have to be figured out "in the next month or so". Glenn Geller, Tassler's successor at CBS, then stated on the matter, "I have to be really careful what I say here. Watch and wait and see what happens."


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: On February 3, 2016, it was announced that Grant Gustin, who appears as Barry Allen / Flash on "The Flash", would appear in the eighteenth episode of the first season, "Worlds Finest". While no plot details on the episodes were released at the time, Ross A. Lincoln of "Deadline Hollywood" noted that "the in-universe reason" for the crossover was due to Barry's ability to travel to various dimensions, thus implying that "Supergirl" exists on an alternate Earth to "Arrow" and "The Flash" in a multiverse. "The Flash" episode "Welcome to Earth-2" confirmed this, showing an image of Benoist as Supergirl during a sequence where characters travel through that multiverse. The earth that the series inhabits is Earth-38 in the Arrowverse multiverse, and has been informally referred to as "Earth-CBS" by Marc Guggenheim, one of the creators of "Arrow".


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: During the second season, Supergirl appears in "Invasion!", a crossover episode of "The Flash", "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow", when she's recruited by Barry Allen and Cisco Ramon at the end of "Medusa" to help fight off an invasion by the Dominators. "Supergirl" and "The Flash" also featured in a musical crossover, featuring several covers of existing songs along with two original numbers. Similar to "Invasion!", the crossover begins at the end of the "Supergirl" episode "Star-Crossed" and primarily takes place during "The Flash" episode "Duet", featuring the Music Meister as the antagonist who puts both The Flash and Supergirl in a shared hallucination. After "Invasion!", Guggenheim felt "If there's an appetite for it from the fans and from the network," the crossover next year could be "a proper four-part crossover."


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: At the 2017 Paleyfest event, Kreisberg reiterated the creative team's intention to do a full four-way crossover the following year. At San Diego Comic Con 2017, it was confirmed that another four-way crossover would take place, with Supergirl playing a larger role than the previous season. The four-way crossover event, titled "Crisis on Earth-X", took place on November 27 and 28, 2017, across "Supergirl" and "Arrow" (on the first night) and "The Flash" and "Legends of Tomorrow" (on the second night).


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In May 2018, "Arrow" star Stephen Amell announced at The CW upfronts that the next Arrowverse crossover would feature Batwoman and Gotham City. The crossover, titled "Elseworlds", aired in December 2018, ahead of a potential 2019 solo series for the character. "Supergirl" was confirmed to have a participating episode in August, which closed out the three-part crossover, trading nights with "The Flash" just for the event. Therefore, the show's participating episode aired on Tuesday, December 11. The end of "Elseworlds" teased the next crossover event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths". "Supergirl"'s episode opened the five-part crossover on December 8, 2019, with the final two installments airing on January 14, 2020. At the end of the event, the new Earth-Prime was formed, which saw Earth-38 merged with the former Earth-1 and "Black Lightning"s earth, creating a fictional universe where all of the CW series exist together.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In October 2019, The CW and Warner Bros. Television announced development on a spin-off series titled "Superman & Lois", with Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch reprising their roles as Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane. In January 2020, "Superman & Lois" was ordered to series. The series premiered on February 23, 2021. Originally presented as being set in the same continuity as "Supergirl", the series was retroactively established to be set in an adjacent universe to the Arrowverse in its second season finale.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In July 2015, a four-page preview comic entitled "Sister Act", written by Ali Adler, Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg was released digitally online, and then a day later in the September 2015 issue of TV Guide.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: Adventures of Supergirl: Beginning in January 2016, DC Comics launched a 13-issue bi-weekly digital comic (6 in print). Written by Sterling Gates and drawn by a rotating team of artist including Bengal, Jonboy Meyers, Emanuela Lupacchino, and Emma Vieceli, the comic, while not directly tying into the show, tells stories set in the universe of the show. The digital series was collected in print as a six-issue series published twice a month from May to July 2016, and as a complete graphic novel in September of that year.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: In November 2017, Abrams Books began publishing a new trilogy of "Supergirl" novels, written by Jo Whittemore, aimed at middle-grade readers in tandem with a similar trilogy of "The Flash" novels. The first, "Supergirl: Age of Atlantis", was released on November 7, 2017, and features Supergirl dealing with a surge of new powered people in National City, as well as a mysterious humanoid sea creature captured by the DEO who is seemingly attracted by the new superpowered people. A sequel, "Supergirl: Curse of the Ancients", was released on May 1, 2018, with a third novel, titled "Supergirl: Master of Illusion", released on January 8, 2019.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: A guidebook for the series, published by Abrams, was released on March 12, 2019. "Supergirl: The Secret Files of Kara Danvers: The Ultimate Guide to the Hit TV Show" features "detailed profiles on characters and super powers, a heroes and villains gallery, episode guide, and more" from the first three seasons of the series.


title: Supergirl (TV series)

text: The video game "Lego DC Super-Villains" features DLC inspired by "Supergirl" in the "DC Super Heroes: TV Series DLC Character Pack". The DLC pack includes Supergirl as a playable character.


title: Assyria

text: Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , "māt Aššur"; ) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC, then to a territorial state, and eventually an empire from the 14th century BC to the 7th century BC.


title: Assyria

text: Spanning from the early Bronze Age to the late Iron Age, modern historians typically divide ancient Assyrian history into the Early Assyrian ( 2600–2025 BC), Old Assyrian ( 2025–1364 BC), Middle Assyrian ( 1363–912 BC), Neo-Assyrian (911–609 BC) and post-imperial (609 BC– AD 240) periods, based on political events and gradual changes in language. Assur, the first Assyrian capital, was founded 2600 BC but there is no evidence that the city was independent until the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 21st century BC, when a line of independent kings beginning with Puzur-Ashur I began ruling the city. Centered in the Assyrian heartland in northern Mesopotamia, Assyrian power fluctuated over time. The city underwent several periods of foreign rule or domination before Assyria rose under Ashur-uballit I in the early 14th century BC as the Middle Assyrian Empire. In the Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods Assyria was one of the two major Mesopotamian kingdoms, alongside Babylonia in the south, and at times became the dominant power in the ancient Near East. Assyria was at its strongest in the Neo-Assyrian period, when the Assyrian army was the strongest military power in the world and the Assyrians ruled the largest empire then yet assembled in world history, spanning from parts of modern-day Iran in the east to Egypt in the west.


title: Assyria

text: The Assyrian Empire fell in the late 7th century BC, conquered by a coalition of the Babylonians, who had lived under Assyrian rule for about a century, and the Medes. Though the core urban territory of Assyria was extensively devastated in the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire and the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire invested little resources in rebuilding it, ancient Assyrian culture and traditions continued to survive for centuries throughout the post-imperial period. Assyria experienced a recovery under the Seleucid and Parthian empires, though declined again under the Sasanian Empire, which sacked numerous cities and semi independent Assyrian territories in the region, including Assur itself. The remaining Assyrian people, who have survived in northern Mesopotamia to modern times, were gradually Christianized from the 1st century AD onwards. The ancient Mesopotamian religion persisted at Assur until its final sack in the 3rd century AD, and at certain other holdouts for centuries thereafter.


title: Assyria

text: The success of ancient Assyria did not derive solely from its energetic warrior-kings, but also from its ability to efficiently incorporate and govern conquered lands through innovative and sophisticated administrative systems. Innovations in warfare and administration pioneered in ancient Assyria were used under later empires and states for millennia thereafter. Ancient Assyria also left a legacy of great cultural significance, particularly through the Neo-Assyrian Empire making a prominent impression in later Assyrian, Greco-Roman and Hebrew literary and religious tradition.


title: Assyria

text: In the Old Assyrian period, when Assyria was merely a city-state centered around the city of Assur, the state was typically referred to as "ālu Aššur" ("city of Ashur"). From the time of its rise as a territorial state in the 14th century BC and onwards, Assyria was referred to in official documentation as "māt Aššur" ("land of Ashur"), marking the shift to being a regional polity. The term "māt Aššur" is first attested as being used in the reign of Ashur-uballit I ( 1363–1328 BC), the first king of the Middle Assyrian Empire. Both "ālu Aššur" and "māt Aššur" derive from the Assyrian national deity Ashur. Ashur probably originated in the Early Assyrian period as a deified personification of Assur itself. In the Old Assyrian period the deity was considered the formal king of Assur, with the actual rulers only using the style "Išši'ak" ("governor"). From the time of Assyria's rise as a territorial state, Ashur began to be regarded as an embodiment of the entire land ruled by the Assyrian kings.


title: Assyria

text: The modern name "Assyria" is of Greek origin, derived from Ασσυρία ("Assuría"). The term is first attested in the time of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC). The Greeks designated the Levant as "Syria" and Mesopotamia as "Assyria", even though the local population at the time, and well into the later Christian period, used both terms interchangeably for the entire region. Whether the Greeks began referring to Mesopotamia as "Assyria" because they equated the region with the Assyrian Empire, long fallen by the time the term is first attested, or because they named the region after the people who lived there (the Assyrians) is not known. Because the term is so similar to "Syria", the question of whether the two are connected has been examined by scholars since the 17th century. Since the shortened form "Syria" is attested in sources predating the Greek ones as a synonym for Assyria, notably in Luwian and Aramaic texts from the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, modern scholars overwhelmingly support the names as being connected.


title: Assyria

text: Both "Assyria" and the contracted "Syria" are ultimately derived from the Akkadian "Aššur". The numerous later empires that ruled over Assyria after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire used their own names for the region, many of which were also derived from "Aššur". The Achaemenid Empire referred to Assyria as "Aθūrā" ("Athura"). The Sasanian Empire inexplicably referred to southern Mesopotamia as "Āsōristān" ("land of the Assyrians"), though the northern province of "Nōdšīragān", which included much of the old Assyrian heartland, was also sometimes called "Atūria" or "Āthōr". In Classical Syriac, Assyria was and is referred to as "ʾāthor".


title: Assyria

text: Agricultural villages in the region that would later become Assyria are known to have existed by the time of the Hassuna culture, 6300–5800 BC. Though the sites of some nearby cities that would later be incorporated into the Assyrian heartland, such as Nineveh, are known to have been inhabited since the Neolithic, the earliest archaeological evidence from Assur dates to the Early Dynastic Period, 2600 BC. During this time, the surrounding region was already relatively urbanized. There is no evidence that early Assur was an independent settlement, and it might not have been called Assur at all initially, but rather Baltil or Baltila, used in later times to refer to the city's oldest portion. The name "Assur" is first attested for the site in documents of the Akkadian period in the 24th century BC. Through most of the Early Assyrian period ( 2600–2025 BC), Assur was dominated by states and polities from southern Mesopotamia. Early on, Assur for a time fell under the loose hegemony of the Sumerian city of Kish and it was later occupied by both the Akkadian Empire and then the Third Dynasty of Ur. In 2025 BC, due to the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Assur became an independent city-state under Puzur-Ashur I.


title: Assyria

text: Assur was under the Puzur-Ashur dynasty home to less than 10,000 people and likely held very limited military power; no military institutions at all are known from this time and no political influence was exerted on neighboring cities. The city was still influential in other ways; under Erishum I ( 1974–1934 BC), Assur experimented with free trade, the earliest known such experiment in world history, which left the initiative for trade and large-scale foreign transactions entirely to the populace rather than the state. Royal encouragement of trade led to Assur quickly establishing itself as a prominent trading city in northern Mesopotamia and soon thereafter establishing an extensive long-distance trade network, the first notable impression Assyria left in the historical record. Among the evidence left from this trade network are large collections of Old Assyrian cuneiform tablets from Assyrian trade colonies, the most notable of which is a set of 22,000 clay tablets found at Kültepe, near the modern city of Kayseri in Turkey. As trade declined, perhaps due to increased warfare and conflict between the growing states of the Near East, Assur was frequently threatened by larger foreign states and kingdoms. The original Assur city-state, and the Puzur-Ashur dynasty, came to an end 1808 BC when the city was conquered by the Amorite ruler of Ekallatum, Shamshi-Adad I. Shamshi-Adad's extensive conquests in northern Mesopotamia eventually made him the ruler of the entire region, founding what some scholars have termed the "Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia". The survival of this realm relied chiefly on Shamshi-Adad's own strength and charisma and it thus collapsed shortly after his death 1776 BC.


title: Assyria

text: After Shamshi-Adad's death, the political situation in northern Mesopotamia was highly volatile, with Assur at times coming under the brief control of Eshnunna, Elam and the Old Babylonian Empire. At some point, the city returned to being an independent city-state, though the politics of Assur itself were volatile as well, with fighting between members of Shamshi-Adad's dynasty, native Assyrians and Hurrians for control. The infighting came to an end after the rise of Bel-bani as king 1700 BC. Bel-bani founded the Adaside dynasty, which after his reign ruled Assyria for about a thousand years. Assyria's rise as a territorial state in later times was in large part facilitated by two separate invasions of Mesopotamia by the Hittites. An invasion by the Hittite king Mursili I in 1595 BC destroyed the dominant Old Babylonian Empire, allowing the smaller kingdoms of Mitanni and Kassite Babylonia to rise in the north and south, respectively. Around 1430 BC, Assur was subjugated by Mitanni, an arrangement that lasted for about 70 years, until 1360 BC. Another Hittite invasion by Šuppiluliuma I in the 14th century BC effectively crippled the Mitanni kingdom. After his invasion, Assyria succeeded in freeing itself from its suzerain, achieving independence once more under Ashur-uballit I ( 1363–1328 BC) whose rise to power, independence, and conquests of neighboring territory traditionally marks the rise of the Middle Assyrian Empire ( 1363–912 BC).


title: Assyria

text: Ashur-uballit I was the first native Assyrian ruler to claim the royal title "šar" ("king"). Shortly after achieving independence, he further claimed the dignity of a great king on the level of the Egyptian pharaohs and the Hittite kings. Assyria's rise was intertwined with the decline and fall of the Mitanni kingdom, its former suzerain, which allowed the early Middle Assyrian kings to expand and consolidate territories in northern Mesopotamia. Under the warrior-kings Adad-nirari I ( 1305–1274 BC), Shalmaneser I ( 1273–1244 BC) and Tukulti-Ninurta I ( 1243–1207 BC), Assyria began to realize its aspirations of becoming a significant regional power. These kings campaigned in all directions and incorporated a significant amount of territory into the growing Assyrian Empire. Under Shalmaneser I, the last remnants of the Mitanni kingdom were formally annexed into Assyria. The most successful of the Middle Assyrian kings was Tukulti-Ninurta I, who brought the Middle Assyrian Empire to its greatest extent. His most notable military achievements were his victory at the Battle of Nihriya 1237 BC, which marked the beginning of the end of Hittite influence in northern Mesopotamia, and his temporary conquest of Babylonia, which became an Assyrian vassal 1225–1216 BC. Tukulti-Ninurta was also the first Assyrian king to try to move the capital away from Assur, inaugurating the new city Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta as capital 1233 BC. The capital was returned to Assur after his death.


title: Assyria

text: Tukulti-Ninurta I's assassination 1207 BC was followed by inter-dynastic conflict and a significant drop in Assyrian power. Tukulti-Ninurta I's successors were unable to maintain Assyrian power and Assyria became increasingly restricted to just the Assyrian heartland, a period of decline broadly coinciding with the Late Bronze Age collapse. Though some kings in this period of decline, such as Ashur-dan I ( 1178–1133 BC), Ashur-resh-ishi I (1132–1115 BC) and Tiglath-Pileser I (1114–1076 BC) worked to reverse the decline and made significant conquests, their conquests were ephemeral and shaky, quickly lost again. From the time of Eriba-Adad II (1056–1054 BC) onwards, Assyrian decline intensified. The Assyrian heartland remained safe since it was protected by its geographical remoteness. Since Assyria was not the only state to undergo decline during these centuries, and the lands surrounding the Assyrian heartland were also significantly fragmented, it would ultimately be relatively easy for the reinvigorated Assyrian army to reconquer large parts of the empire. Under Ashur-dan II (934–912 BC), who campaigned in the northeast and northwest, Assyrian decline was at last reversed, paving the way for grander efforts under his successors. The end of his reign conventionally marks the beginning of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC).


title: Assyria

text: Through decades of conquests, the early Neo-Assyrian kings worked to retake the lands of the Middle Assyrian Empire. Since this "reconquista" had to begin nearly from scratch, its eventual success was an extraordinary achievement. Under Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), the Neo-Assyrian Empire became the dominant political power in the Near East. In his ninth campaign, Ashurnasirpal II marched to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, collecting tribute from various kingdoms on the way. A significant development during Ashurnasirpal II's reign was the second attempt to transfer the Assyrian capital away from Assur. Ashurnasirpal restored the ancient and ruined town of Nimrud, also located in the Assyrian heartland, and in 879 BC designated that city as the new capital of the empire Though no longer the political capital, Assur remained the ceremonial and religious center of Assyria. Ashurnasirpal II's son Shalmaneser III (859–824 BC) also went on wide-ranging wars of conquest, expanding the empire in all directions. After Shalmaneser III's death, the Neo-Assyrian Empire entered into a period of stagnation dubbed the "age of the magnates", when powerful officials and generals were the principal wielders of political power rather than the king. This time of stagnation came to an end with the rise of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC), who reduced the power of the magnates, consolidated and centralized the holdings of the empire, and through his military campaigns and conquests more than doubled the extent of Assyrian territory. The most significant conquests were the vassalization of the Levant all the way to the Egyptian border and the 729 BC conquest of Babylonia.


title: Assyria

text: The Neo-Assyrian Empire reached the height of its extent and power under the Sargonid dynasty, founded by Sargon II (722–705 BC). Under Sargon II and his son Sennacherib (705–681 BC), the empire was further expanded and the gains were consolidated. Both kings founded new capitals; Sargon II moved the capital to the new city of Dur-Sharrukin in 706 BC and the year after, Sennacherib transferred the capital to Nineveh, which he ambitiously expanded and renovated. The 671 BC conquest of Egypt under Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) brought Assyria to its greatest ever extent. After the death of Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC), the Neo-Assyrian Empire swiftly collapsed. One of the primary reasons was the inability of the Neo-Assyrian kings to resolve the "Babylonian problem"; despite many attempts to appease Babylonia in the south, revolts were frequent all throughout the Sargonid period. The revolt of Babylon under Nabopolassar in 626 BC, in combination with an invasion by the Medes under Cyaxares in 615/614 BC, led to the Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire. Assur was sacked in 614 BC and Nineveh fell in 612 BC. The last Assyrian ruler, Ashur-uballit II, tried to rally the Assyrian army at Harran in the west but he was defeated in 609 BC, marking the end of the ancient line of Assyrian kings and of Assyria as a state.


title: Assyria

text: Despite the violent downfall of the Assyrian Empire, Assyrian culture continued to survive through the subsequent post-imperial period (609 BC – AD 240) and beyond. The Assyrian heartland experienced a dramatic decrease in the size and number of inhabited settlements during the rule of the Neo-Babylonian Empire founded by Nabopolassar; the former Assyrian capital cities Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh were nearly completely abandoned. Throughout the time of the Neo-Babylonian and later Achaemenid Empire, Assyria remained a marginal and sparsely populated region. Towards the end of the 6th century BC, the Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language went extinct, having towards the end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire already largely been replaced by Aramaic as a vernacular language. Under the empires succeeding the Neo-Babylonians, from the late 6th century BC onwards, Assyria began to experience a recovery. Under the Achaemenids, most of the territory was organized into the province Athura ("Aθūrā"). The organization into a single large province, the lack of interference of the Achaemenid rulers in local affairs, and the return of the cult statue of Ashur to Assur soon after the Achaemenids conquered Babylon facilitated the survival of Assyrian culture. Under the Seleucid Empire, which controlled Mesopotamia from the late 4th to mid-2nd century BC, Assyrian sites such as Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh were resettled and a large number of villages were rebuilt and expanded.