A Field Guide To Anna Skellern

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We know we just spent time praising Anna Skellern exactly three hours ago, but in the process of doing so, we realized that we don't know anything about her. We know that she's our favorite orgasmer on television right now, but we're sure that there's much more to Anna Skellern beneath the sexy and often sapphic surface.

Anna Skellern was born on April 25, 1985 in Sydney, Australia but grew up mostly in Bristol. Even from a young age, Skellern knew she wanted to be an actor, and she blesses her "very patient parents" for putting up with her young reaches for stardom:

I was always trying to perform, standing on the table thinking I was Ophelia. Now that I'm an actress professionally, it's good, because I don't have to be so annoying the rest of the time! I have to keep pinching myself to believe it's real.

She spent her undergrad years at the University of Sydney (where she was a "prominent student activist" for causes we're unable to divine) and then studied the theater arts extensively at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, from which she graduated in 2007. However, Anna's first big break came between these two academic periods when she became the first female member of the award winning Australian TV comedy, "The Chaser's CNNNN," a parody of CNN and Fox News (the acronym stands for "Chaser's NoN-stop News Network"). She played a correspondent named Anna Skellern, "noted for the loss of cameramen [and] once famously dubbed 'the perfumed abbatoir.' Among countless awards, she has received a NAFTA for Best News Audio Of A Painful Death and has recently been widowed."

Her big movie break came in 2009 when she appeared in "The Descent: Part 2," the sequel to a claustrophobia-inspiring movie about a group of women who get lost in a subterranean cave system and end up being devoured by humanoids. It may sound a little cheesy, but the movie received a ton of critical acclaim! The sequel: not so much, but at least Anna got to kill one of those nasty monsters.

The next time she was in a movie, Anna got the lead role! The movie was "Siren," it's about a group of friends who get seduced by a young woman asking for help on a secluded island (which sounds like bad news), and Ms. Skellern has a very hot scene in which she follows Tereza Srbova naked into the water. We've written about this clip before, and it's on this page, too.

Anna's worked on a number of projects between "Siren" and now, but the work we're most interested in is the stuff she does on the newest season of "Lip Service." She plays Lexy--affectionately known as "Sexy Lexy"--a very dry and relaxed yet sexually powerful doctor who joined the show as a potential flatmate for Frankie and Tess. Anna did an interview about her "Lip Service" experience about a month ago, and it's chock full of gems. For example:

AfterEllen: You have said before that you enjoy working with female creatives – was that something that attracted you to this show?
Anna Skellern: Hugely. It creates such a different – and fantastic – working environment. And I don't mean women who are just perpetuating the patriarchy and behaving Thatcheresque by running things like a man. I mean women leading as women. I think that can create a really exciting and stimulating workplace. It's also much more comfortable if you have to get your kit off!

[...]

AE: In real life, your Australian accent is quite soft, but much stronger as Lexy, why did you make this choice?
AS: My accent is all over the place. I grew up in Australia, the UK and the US, so I'm one of those highly frustrating actors whose accent changes depending on where they are. I don't know how my family and friends put up with it! Unless I was profoundly deaf, I don't think I could stand having a friend with my accent.

I gave Lex a stronger accent — firstly because I wanted her to be a proper Australian, not some strange hybrid like myself and secondly, because it's sexier! I decided to vary her accent ever so slightly because I think that's what most of us do in our own lives, even if we don't realise it. Her accent softens when she's at work and being her professional self but then gets a lot stronger when she's angry or has been drinking.

AE: You have a very good lesbian walk; do you think this is because you do so much yoga?
AS: No, it's just because I've ridden lots of horses.

What's next for Anna? Tons of stuff! She has small roles in the new Coen Brothers written film, "Gambit," and the newest Working Title romcom, "I Give It a Year," plus she's in a HBO/BBC mini-series based on a set of Ford Madox Ford novellas that Tom Stoppard adapted called "Parade's End."

We know what your next question probably is: "HBO and BBC, huh? Will there be nudity?" Come on, grow up. Can't we just be excited for Anna Skellern's rising star? (We choose to silently hope for more nudity from her.)

Oh, and here's that clip from "Siren" that we mentioned earlier.

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[At top: Anna Skellern's orgasm is something you should watch over and over and over. God bless "Lip Service."]