The Character Everyone Forgets Rose McIver Played On Xena: Warrior Princess
Rose McIver is best known for starring in the "Christmas Prince" film series on Netflix. A few years ago, the whole world caught Hallmark Christmas movie fever, which led to a flood of Christmas movies on Netflix. "A Christmas Prince" was one of the first, followed by its sequels, as well as the Vanessa Hudgens movies "The Princess Switch" and "The Knight Before Christmas." "A Christmas Prince" tells the story of Amber (McIver) a journalist who infiltrates the royal household of fake European country Aldovia to investigate their allegedly rakish prince. But wouldn't you know it? She falls in love with him instead.
Before becoming everyone's favorite blogger-turned-monarch, McIver was the lead in "iZombie," a supernatural procedural from "Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas, based on the comic series by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred. McIver played Liv, a zombie coroner who solved murders by eating the brains of victims to access their memories.
Despite being most famous for playing Americans, McIver is from New Zealand. And like every Kiwi and Aussie actor of a certain age, she did her time on "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules."
McIver briefly played Xena on Xena
Rose McIver starred in the body-swapping episode "Little Problems" in Season 5 of "Xena: Warrior Princess." The show was a big fan of body-swap episodes, including the one where Xena briefly inhabited the body of Autolycus (Bruce Campbell).
In this episode, Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings) swaps Xena's mind with that of a girl in a coma (McIver). When Daphne is awakened from her coma, her father takes her home, but Xena's mind is still trapped in her body. That leaves Gabrielle (Renée O'Connor) and Aphrodite to switch Xena and Daphne back before the brain swap is permanent. While trapped in the little girl's body, Xena helps Daphne work through her survivor's guilt.
Before "Xena," McIver was also in an episode "Xena's" predecessor, "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." On that show, she played Herc's daughter, Ilea. Villain Hera, as part of her long-lasting quest to ruin stepson Hercules' life, exploded Herc's entire family, including Ilea. Truly, she was the original wicked stepmother.