Lyta Alexander, the commercial telepath in J. Michael Straczynski’s epic series Babylon 5, ended up being far more complex than she might have first appeared. By the end of the five year story she had grown to become the universe’s most powerful telepath and maybe have laid the seeds for a telepath uprising.
In a similar way, Patricia Tallman, the actress who played Alexander, has had a more varied career than you might expect. She has acted beside Vorlons, secret agents, the undead, and played on more than one starship. Her most current work can be seen in Dead Air, a sci-fi thriller set for release later this year.
In our video interview from Starfest 2009, Tallman talks about working with Straczynski, one of the unexpected challenges of portraying Lyta Alexander, and her “knockout” encounter with the ‘International Man of Mystery’.