The L Word Stars: Where Are They Now - 2012 Edition

When The L Word ended in 2009, it was really the end of an era for lesbian images on TV.

Since we just can’t let go of our beloved L Word ladies, let’s keep the magic going with a ‘Where Are They Now’ follow up tracking down all your favorite stars from the show.

The good news? Most of these luscious women can still be seen on your television screens regularly. Find out where to reconnect with the actresses who portrayed Bette, Tina, Alice, Jenny, Kit, Helena, Max, Dana, Carmen, Tasha, Molly, Marina, Joyce Wishnia and of course, Shane.

Here is our The L Word stars: Where are They Now - 2012 Edition:

Jennifer Beals (Bette Porter), the magnetic matriarch of the L Word bunch, made viewers all over the world melt with her beautiful brown eyes and sexy voice. 

Since the end of the L Word Beals enjoyed a multi-episode arc on Lie to Me before landing the lead as a tough talking police chief on Fox's short-lived The Chicago Code. The multi-talented actress also appeared in several episodes of Castle, signed on for a role in the indie flick The Lord of Vinyl -- about jazz music -- and scored a role as a wise-cracking hairstylist opposite John Corbett in the upcoming pilot for The Widow Detective. 

If that weren't enough, Beals, who's always been an avocational photographer, released a "photographic journal" of photos she took behind-the-scenes on the L Word entitled, appropriately enough, The L Word Book. Here's Beals on Castle: 

Laurel Holloman (Tina Kennard) reamains an irresistible dream girl to her faithful lesbian fans from her role in The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love and as one half of the super couple at the center of The L Word.  In 2010 Holloman had a stint on TeenNick's Gigantic, which starred Meryl Streep's daughter Grace Gummer. Gigantic was cancelled in 2011 after 18 episodes. But Holloman's other passion came out in a literally big way following the end of the L Word.  She's a large format abstract painter, and her work is amazing! Check it out here.

Here's Holloman painting entitled "She Burns My Eyes." 

Mia Kirshner (Jenny Schecter) proved to be polarizing and ultimately tragic character on the seminal Showtime series but Mia is keeping busy with indie films. In 2011 she made the thriller 388 Arleta Avenue with Devon Sawa and Nick Stahl. She's also appeared on several episodes of the CW's hit The Vampire Diaries, and she's got several flicks in the queue including the TV movie Kiss at Pine Lake, the horror flick The Barrens and the comedy I Think I Do. Kirshner has also kept busy post L Word with the I Live Here project, offering a global platform for those whose stories need to be heard. 

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Leisha Hailey (Alice Pieszecki) was a perennial favorite throughout her L Word run. The musical pixie still pops up on TV when not touring with her band Uh Huh Her. Maybe you’ve heard her on American Dad! or caught her episode of Drop Dead Diva? But Hailey's primarily kept busy with her band Uh Huh Her touring with her bandmate and girlfriend Camila Grey. This past October Hailey and Grey released their fourth album Nocturnes and headlined the first-ever Keep a Breast tour. She and Grey also became acccidental activists last September when Southwest airlines booted them for kissing. The couple took to the Twittersphere to protest the airline's actions. 

Since the L Word ended Katherine Moennig (Shane McCutcheon) has been busy! She starred in the short-lived Three Rivers, appeared on an episode of Dexter during which she flirted with Dexter's sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), appeared in the star-studded The Lincoln Lawyer and Gone with Amanda Seyfried. Moennig was recently tapped to star in the Showtime Pilot Ray Donovan, playing  professional fixer opposite Liev Schreiber. 

Rachel Shelley (Helena Peabody) welcomed a daughter in 2009. And last year she appeared on Showtime's  Episodes playing a California girl who hooks up with star Matt Le Blanc. But lately she's returned to across the pond to star as Yvonne Rippon in the long-running UK series Casualty. 

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Pam Grier (Kit Porter) has been heating up the screen since the 70s and shows no signs of slowing down after The L Word. Grier appeared on the big screen in last year’s Just Wright, playing mom to Queen Latifah's character, and in Larry Crowne, costarring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. She also played a voluptuous villainess on TV’s Smallville in 2010, bringing some serious sex appeal to the Suicide Squad. Next up she stars in The Man with the Iron Fists with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and Sucker Punch's Jamie Chung. 

Erin Daniels (Dana Fairbanks) tried out for the roles of Bette and Alice before becoming the bewitching tennis star that battled two “big C’s” on the series: coming out publicly and cancer. After popping up on TVs CSI and in Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man, Daniels also appeared on the much-loved-by-lesbians procedural Rizzoli and Isles. If that weren't enough, she costarred in the Jonah Hill comedy The Sitter. She's got a full slate of indie films in the works including Portland, Like Father and Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean. The L Word was still on the air in 2008 but Dana had already been gone for a few seasons at the point, and Daniels had moved on to CBS's Swingtown. 
Check out Daniels in an emerald green bikini: 

Daniela Sea (Max Sweeney) keeps busy with her acting, activism, and music since we said goodbye to L Word. Daniela stars in director Steve Balderson's film, The Casserole Club, focused on a group of mod 1960's era suburban housewives who start a recipe club that leads to a lot more. Next up she's slated to play Clarice Starling -- hasn't that been done? -- in the sci-fi venture The Pyrex Glitch that's written and directed by the Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin. 

Here's Sea in The Casserole Club: 

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Rose Rollins (Tasha Williams) made more than a few women swoon as she swept Alice off her feet, playing a sexy Military police officer who wouldn't serve in silence. Rollins costarred in NBC's Chase alongside The Good Wife's and SVU's Kelli Giddish, but sadly, the series didn't last. Rollins has also appeared in the critical smash cop series Southland and she's slated for POWER UP'S Girltrash:All Night Long, which is in post-production. 

Rollins makes quite the entrance at about the 2:30 mark:

Sara Shahi (Carmen de La Pica Morales), the only woman hot enough to ever come close to taming Shane, has been working steadily following her turn on The L Word. The exotic Texas actress lights up the small screen as the star of the new USA series Fairly Legal and stars opposite Michael C. Hall and Lucy Liu in the film East Fifth Bliss.

Film and television veteran Cybill Shepherd played Bette’s boss Dean Phyllis Kroll beginning in TheL Word’s fourth season. Phyllis’ journey included coming out late and life and engaging in affairs with Alice and Jane Lynch’s Joyce Wishnia. Since The L Word went off the air Shepherd has appeared on No Ordinary Family, Psych and $#*! My Dad Says. She stars in the upcoming indie film White Camellias with Neal Patrick Harris’ husband David Burtka and Gia Carides and Queer as Folk’s Peter Paige. If that weren’t enough, Shepherd just landed a role on the Jennifer Love Hewitt starrer The Client List playing her mother. 

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Clementine Ford joined the cast of The L Word in its fifth season as Molly Kroll the formerly straight girl who captured Shane’s heart. Since the L Word Clementine has kept fairly busy coming out officially to The Advocate, landing a role on the Young and the Restless and also costarring in POWER UP’s anticipated feature Girltrash: All Night Long. Beginning in April Ford will star in her sister Ariel Shepherd-Oppenheim's experimental play Phantom's Go Down in Los Angeles. 

Do we really even have to say what Jane Lynch has been up to since she played cutthroat attorney Joyce Wishnia, who stole Cybill Shepherd’s Phyllis Kroll’s heart? Jane may have had a long resume prior to the L Word, but now she’s got Emmy awards and Golden Globes under her polyester tracksuit for her no-holds-barred portrayal of the vindictive cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on Glee. Recently Lynch wowed an celebrity-studded audience and cast with her portrayal of the National Organization for Marriage's lighting rod of controversy Maggie Gallagher in Lance Black's play 8, based on the Prop 8 trial transcripts. On the personal front, Lynch married her wife Lara Embry in Northampton, Mass. in June of 2010, and is now a stepmom to Embry's daughter. 

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