Julius Robert Bay Tapert was born on October 16, 1999, in Auckland, New Zealand, the elder son of Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless and film and television producer Robert Gerard Tapert. Now 26, he has grown up almost entirely outside the entertainment industry his parents built their careers in, and remains one of the more private children of a well-known Hollywood-adjacent couple. This piece covers what’s known about Julius himself, plus the fuller context readers often look for: who his parents are, what his father is working on today, and the family history that shaped his upbringing.
In this article
- Quick Facts
- Lucy Lawless and Rob Tapert: How the Family Began
- Julius’s Birth and Early Life
- Why the Tapert-Lawless Household Kept a Low Profile
- What Rob Tapert Is Doing Now
- Lucy Lawless: Beyond Xena
- Who Was Lucy Lawless’s First Husband?
- What Is Rob Tapert Doing Now?
- A Different Kind of Celebrity Upbringing
- The Wider Family Circle
- Timeline
- Conclusion
Quick Facts
- Born: October 16, 1999, in Auckland, New Zealand
- Age: 26 (as of 2026)
- Mother: Lucy Lawless (born Lucille Frances Ryan), New Zealand actress
- Father: Robert Gerard Tapert, American film and TV producer
- Full sibling: Judah Miro Tapert, born May 7, 2002
- Half-sister: Daisy Lawless, born July 15, 1988, from their mother’s first marriage
- Parents’ marriage: March 28, 1998
Lucy Lawless and Rob Tapert: How the Family Began
Lucy Lawless, born Lucille Frances Ryan on March 29, 1968, in Mount Albert, Auckland, met her future husband on the set of the syndicated series that would define both their careers. Robert Gerard Tapert — Michigan-born, a Michigan State University economics graduate turned filmmaker — was already an established producer by the time he cast her in a guest arc on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys in the mid-1990s. That role led to her own spin-off, and the show that made her internationally famous, Xena: Warrior Princess, which Tapert co-created with longtime collaborator Sam Raimi.
The pair married on March 28, 1998, when Rob was 42. It was Lucy’s second marriage; she had wed New Zealander Garth Lawless in 1988, and the couple had a daughter, Daisy, before divorcing in 1995. Rob became stepfather to Daisy, and just over a year after his marriage to Lucy, the couple welcomed Julius — followed by a second son, Judah, in 2002.
Julius’s Birth and Early Life
Lucy Lawless has spoken publicly about the circumstances of Julius’s arrival, describing a lengthy labor at the family’s New Zealand home attended by a midwife rather than in a hospital setting. At over 11 pounds at birth, Julius was, in his mother’s words, notably large for a newborn — a detail she’s recounted with humor in interviews over the years.
That home birth set the tone for how the family would handle the rest of Julius’s childhood: privately, and largely outside public view. He grew up between New Zealand and the United States, attending school without the level of media attention that often follows children of famous parents in Los Angeles. Family trips, school routines, and everyday milestones stayed out of the press by design rather than by accident.
Why the Tapert-Lawless Household Kept a Low Profile
Both parents had reasons, shaped by their own experience of fame, to shield their kids from constant exposure. Lucy’s career took off practically overnight once Xena aired in 1995, and she’s spoken about the pressures that kind of sudden visibility brings. Rob, for his part, had spent two decades in production by the time Julius was born, working alongside Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell since their college years and co-founding Renaissance Pictures with them — enough industry experience to know how disruptive a public childhood can be.
The couple chose to keep their sons’ schooling, friendships, and daily life separate from the entertainment world their parents worked in. Public sightings of Julius over the years have mostly come from candid airport photos or the rare event appearance alongside his mother or father — never anything staged for coverage.
What Rob Tapert Is Doing Now
Unlike his son, Julius’s father remains highly active and visible in the industry — this is one area where there’s plenty of current, verifiable information. As of 2026, Rob Tapert continues producing installments of the Evil Dead franchise alongside Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, the trio behind the series since 1981’s original film. Their latest, Evil Dead Burn, directed by Sébastien Vaniček and starring Souheila Yacoub, released in France and Italy on July 8, 2026, followed by a U.S. release on July 10 through Warner Bros., with Sony handling international distribution. In interviews around the release, Tapert and Raimi have talked about their strategy of bringing in fresh directorial voices for each new Evil Dead entry to keep the franchise from going stale — Vaniček was brought on after his 2023 feature debut, Infested, caught Raimi’s attention.
Beyond horror, Tapert has continued producing across genres in recent years, including Nightbooks and Don’t Breathe 2, and has several projects listed as upcoming. He and Lucy have also supported each other’s work publicly — Rob has spoken proudly of her 2023 directorial debut, the documentary Never Look Away, about New Zealand-born war cameraperson Margaret Moth, which was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival.
Lucy Lawless: Beyond Xena
While the earlier version of Julius’s family story tends to stop at Xena, his mother’s career has extended well past that role. She’s played D’Anna Biers in the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand and its follow-ups, a recurring character on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, and has starred as Alexa Crowe in the New Zealand-set mystery series My Life Is Murder since 2019. She also appeared in Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake.
A few personal details about her come up often in searches: she has blue eyes, stands around 5’10”, and — somewhat less widely known — speaks German and French fluently, along with some Italian, having studied languages at Auckland University before pursuing acting full-time. She spent time living in Germany and Switzerland in her early twenties, which is where much of that language ability took root.
Who Was Lucy Lawless’s First Husband?
Lucy Lawless’s first husband was Garth Lawless, a New Zealander she married in 1988. The couple had one child together, daughter Daisy Lawless, born July 15, 1988, before divorcing in 1995. Lucy married Rob Tapert three years later, in 1998, and kept the Lawless surname professionally — which is why her first married name has stuck as her public identity ever since, even though Garth is not related to Julius or Judah.
What Is Rob Tapert Doing Now?
As of 2026, Rob Tapert is producing Evil Dead Burn, the latest installment in the Evil Dead franchise, alongside longtime collaborators Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Directed by Sébastien Vaniček, the film released in France and Italy on July 8, 2026, and in the United States on July 10 through Warner Bros., with Sony distributing internationally. Tapert has continued producing steadily beyond the franchise as well, with additional projects in production or upcoming.
A Different Kind of Celebrity Upbringing
Julius’s story stands out mainly for what’s absent from it — no acting credits, no red-carpet history, no public commentary on his own plans or interests. That’s consistent with how his parents raised both him and his younger brother: away from cameras, with an emphasis on ordinary schooling and family life rather than industry access. Where his father remains a working, visible figure in Hollywood and his mother continues acting and now directing, Julius appears to have simply opted out of that public track altogether — a choice his parents seem to have supported from the start.
The Wider Family Circle
Julius’s family extends beyond his immediate household in a few directions worth knowing. On his father’s side, Rob grew up with three siblings of his own — Mary Beth, Dorothy, and Jeff Tapert — making them Julius’s paternal aunts and uncle, though like Julius himself, they’ve stayed out of the public eye. His father’s decades-long producing partnership with Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell — the trio behind Renaissance Pictures — runs through nearly every major project in Rob’s career, from the original Evil Dead to the newest sequel. On his mother’s side, half-sister Daisy Lawless connects Julius to Lucy’s first marriage, while younger brother Judah Miro Tapert is the sibling he grew up alongside most closely.
Extended Xena and Hercules circles — co-stars like Renee O’Connor and Kevin Sorbo — aren’t part of Julius’s personal life, but they remain closely tied to the show that first brought his parents together, and to the industry world his family has always kept him separate from.
Timeline
- 1988 — Lucy Lawless (then married to Garth Lawless) gives birth to daughter Daisy.
- 1995 — Lucy and Garth Lawless divorce.
- 1995 — Lucy Lawless is cast in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, leading to Xena: Warrior Princess.
- March 28, 1998 — Lucy Lawless marries Rob Tapert.
- October 16, 1999 — Julius Robert Bay Tapert is born in Auckland.
- May 7, 2002 — Brother Judah Miro Tapert is born.
- 2019–present — Lucy Lawless stars in My Life Is Murder.
- 2023 — Lucy Lawless’s directorial debut, Never Look Away, is accepted into Sundance.
- 2026 — Rob Tapert produces Evil Dead Burn alongside Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.
Conclusion
Julius Robert Bay Tapert’s life is defined less by what’s known about him and more by what his family has deliberately kept out of view. He’s the product of two industry veterans — a mother whose career spans from Xena to My Life Is Murder, and a father still actively producing decades into the Evil Dead franchise — yet he’s grown up with none of the visibility that usually comes with that kind of household. That gap is, by most indications, exactly what his parents intended: a normal upbringing for their sons, built around privacy rather than the industry that made the Lawless-Tapert name recognizable in the first place.
