Jane Badler

Jane Badler is an American-Australian actress and singer. She is widely recognized for her starring role as the main antagonist Diana in the NBC science fiction series V, a character she portrayed across miniseries and television productions in the 1980s as well as in a later television remake.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 31, 1953, Badler is of Galician Jewish descent. She spent her teenage years in Great Neck, New York, before moving to Manchester, New Hampshire, during high school. At age 18, her father and brother died in a small plane crash. Badler won the Miss New Hampshire title and competed in the 1973 Miss America Pageant. She went on to study drama at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1976.

Badler began her screen career in television soap operas, playing Melinda Cramer Janssen on One Life to Live from 1977 to 1981 and in 1983, and Natalie Bell on The Doctors from 1981 to 1982. Her breakthrough came in 1983 when she was cast as the alien villain Diana in the NBC miniseries V. She reprised the role in V: The Final Battle (1984) and V: The Series (1984–1985). Following V, she appeared in the TV movie Covenant, had a recurring role on Falcon Crest during the 1986–87 season, played Tania Winthrop in The Highwayman, and made guest appearances on shows such as Fantasy Island, Riptide, Hotel, and Murder, She Wrote.

In 1988, Badler joined the cast of the Mission: Impossible revival as agent Shannon Reed during its first season, continuing through its second season until early 1990. Filming the series brought her to Australia, which subsequently became her permanent home. Her later screen roles include Mrs Peacock on the Australian game show Cluedo (1992–1993), a guest role on Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (1995), and the villainous Diana Marshall on the soap opera Neighbours in 2010. She also returned to the V franchise in 2011, playing a new character named Diana, the mother of the Visitors' leader, in the second season of ABC's V remake. In 2022, she appeared as Lauren Balmer in the international release of the horror film Surrogate.

In addition to her screen work, Badler has established a career in cabaret, theater, and music. In Australia, she has performed in stage productions such as archy & mehitabel, Sextet, Big Hair in America, The Singing Forest, The Great Gatsby, and her one-woman show Shakin' the Blues Away. As a nightclub singer, she released her debut autobiographical album, The Devil Has My Double, backed by the band Sir in 2008. She followed with her second album, Tears Again, in 2011, and co-wrote her third album, Opus, which was released in September 2014.

Badler resides in Melbourne, Australia. She married Australian businessman Stephen Hains in 1990, and the couple had two sons, Sam and Harry.