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Amy Acker is Illyria Amy Acker is Fred Burkle

Illyria is a purebred, ageless, parasitic demon that was introduced in S5 when Fred opened an ancient sarcophagus that was anonymously sent to her.  The virus consumed the beloved, sweet, brilliant Winnifred Burkle.  Fred died, and her body and soul were consumed by Illyria, who came to life when her hostess' body died.  Illyria's power was inmeasurable, and as a being she was erractic; the only person with even the slightest ability to sway her was Wesley.  Being a god, she was used to being worshipped, and had nothing but contempt for humans and their frailties.  When Illyria's power threatened to virtually explode, taking much of the world with it, Wesley used a mechanism to drain a good portion of her power away, but even a "light" version of Illyria is quite dangerous.  Wes had been teaching Illyria about the new world she was in, and she seemed to have become very attached to him.  When he was killed in the series finale, she morphed into Fred's likeness for him [a talent she'd displayed previously, much to Wes' horror, when Fred's parents had dropped by unexpectedly], and he died in her arms, as she wept and called him her beloved.  When she joined Angel, Spike and Gunn for the last few minutes of the episode, and told them that Wesley had died, the demon said she grieved over his death, and basically was looking forward to kicking some Senior Partner butt to get it out of her system.

Amy Louise Acker was born and raised in Dallas, Texas; her birthday is December 5th. Amy's dad is a lawyer, her mother is a full time mom, and she has two sisters and a brother; Amy is the oldest. Amy wanted to be a ballerina, and studied ballet, modern and jazz dancing for 13 years. Unfortunately after knee surgery in high school, she couldn't dance full-time, so she took acting in high school and discovered she loved it. In the ninth grade, Amy began modeling, and in 1996, she attended Southern Methodist University. As part of her acting curriculum at SMU, she was trained in weapons and certified in combat. While a senior at SMU, she was in the TV movie "To Serve and Protect" released in February 1999. She received her Bachelor in Fine Arts in Acting from SMU when she graduated in 1999. After graduation, Amy did Shakespeare theater for about eight months in Wisconsin, then moved to New York still wanting to do theater. She worked on a couple of indie’s and a television pilot (MTV's Hell House). After these experiences, she decided to pursue more on-screen roles, so she moved to LA in 2000. Before Amy auditioned for Angel, she appeared in the sci fi movie Groom Lake, with William Shatner. Originally the character of "Fred" was supposed to be a three episode deal, but Whedon and company liked her and the role, so they chose to make Fred ~ and Amy ~ a series regular. Amy enjoys traveling, reading, skiing, hiking, horseback-riding, practices yoga, and is learning to play golf. Like Fred, Amy enjoys Mexican food. Amy lives in LA, is 5'6'', and married actor James Carpinello in April 2003.  Their son, Jackson James Carpinello, made his appearance in January, 2005. The couple welcomed Ava Grace in September, 2006.

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