# Yancy Butler

Yancy Victoria Butler (born July 2, 1970) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Natasha Binder in the 1993 film Hard Target, Jess Crossman in Drop Zone (1994), and Detective Sara Pezzini on the TNT supernatural drama series Witchblade. For her performance in Witchblade, she won a Saturn Award for Best Actress in a Television Series.

## Early life

Yancy Victoria Butler was born in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, the daughter of Leslie Vega, a theatre company manager, and Joe Butler, the drummer and vocalist for the 1960s rock group the Lovin' Spoonful.
Butler attended Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1991.

## Career

According to the Chicago Tribune, a fan site dedicated to Butler described her as having an "unmistakable husky voice and big, intense eyes"; flattered, she told the newspaper: "That makes me sound like Peter Lorre." Butler's first major role was in the television series Mann & Machine in 1992, in which she played an android police officer partnered with a human detective. The series was set in Los Angeles in the near future. The series was co-created by Dick Wolf. A year later, she starred in her second series, South Beach, in which she played a con artist and thief who made a deal with the federal government; in exchange for their wiping of her criminal record, she performs certain tasks for them.
Butler's first film appearance was a small supporting role in the 1979 slasher film Savage Weekend. Her next film appearance was a starring role in John Woo's 1993 film, Hard Target. She then starred in the 1994 film Drop Zone. In 1995, she starred as Corinne the dancer in the film Let It Be Me. Butler was cast as a series regular in the CBS television series Brooklyn South playing Anne-Marie Kersey, a Brooklyn policewoman, which ran for one season from 1997 to 1998.
Butler starred in the television film Witchblade (2000) and the subsequent television series, adapted from the ongoing comic book of the same title; the series ran for two seasons on the Turner Network Television network for a total of 23 episodes. The series has a cult following, and was ranked seventh in the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002. The show's cancellation was announced after the second season in September 2002.
In 2005, Butler starred in the film Bloodlines. For distribution purposes, it was retitled in 2006 as Striking Range. In 2007, she appeared in 13 episodes of the television soap opera As the World Turns, as Ava Jenkins. She was confirmed to appear in Tales of an Ancient Empire, the follow-up to The Sword and the Sorcerer. On January 24, 2012, Tales of an Ancient Empire was released on DVD. Butler, however, did not appear in the film. She appeared in a small role in another comic-book adaptation, the film version of Kick-Ass.

## Legal issues

In November 2003, Butler was taken into custody in Delray Beach, Florida, for disorderly intoxication and sentenced to a substance-abuse treatment program. In 2007, she was charged with driving under the influence after she crashed her car.
On April 3, 2017, Butler was arrested in Sag Harbor, New York, and charged with aggravated drunken driving and possession of drugs after she was found passed out behind the wheel of her car after it had hopped a curb onto the sidewalk.

## Personal life

As of 2025, Butler lives in Winnetka, Los Angeles.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1979 | Savage Weekend | Little Girl | |
| 1993 | Hard Target | Natasha Binder | |
| 1993 | The Hit List | Jordan Henning | |
| 1994 | Drop Zone | Jessie Crossman | |
| 1995 | Let It Be Me | Corinne | |
| 1996 | Fast Money | Francesca March | |
| 1997 | Ravager | Avedon Hammond | |
| 1997 | The Ex | Deidre Kenyon | |
| 1997 | Annie's Garden | Lisa Miller | |
| 1999 | The Witness Files | Sandy Dickinson | |
| 2000 | Doomsday Man | Captain Kate Roebuck | |
| 2004 | The Last Letter | Ms. Toney / Alicia Cromwell | |
| 2006 | Striking Range | Emily Johanson | |
| 2008 | Vote and Die: Liszt for President | Ann Barklely | |
| 2010 | Kick-Ass | Angie D'Amico | |
| 2010 | Lake Placid 3 | Reba | |
| 2012 | Shark Week | Elena | |
| 2012 | Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | Reba | |
| 2013 | Hansel & Gretel Get Baked | Officer Hart | |
| 2013 | Kick-Ass 2 | Angie D'Amico | |
| 2015 | Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | Reba | |
| 2017 | Death Race 2050 | Alexis Hamilton | Direct to video |
| 2018 | The Assassin's Code | Laura Consolo | |
| 2019 | American Criminal | Dr. Penelope Lang | |
| 2020 | Emerald Run | Anna Thomas | |
| 2021 | Initiation | Detective Sandra Fitzgerald | |
| 2021 | The Accursed | Hana | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1991 | Law & Order | Beverly Kern | Episode: "Misconception" |
| 1992 | Mann & Machine | Sgt. Eve Edison | 9 episodes |
| 1993 | South Beach | Kate Patrick | 7 episodes |
| 1997 | NYPD Blue | Lucinda "Lucy" Hastings | 1 episode |
| 1997–1998 | Brooklyn South | Officer Anne-Marie Kersey | 21 episodes |
| 2000 | Witchblade | Detective Sara Pezzini | Television movie |
| 2001–2002 | Witchblade | Detective Sara Pezzini | 23 episodes |
| 2006 | Double Cross | Kathy Swanson | Television movie |
| 2006 | Basilisk: The Serpent King | Hannah Carmelina Santorini Frankman | Television movie |
| 2007 | As the World Turns | Ava Jenkins | 13 episodes |
| 2008 | Wolvesbayne | Lillith | Television movie |
| 2010 | Lake Placid 3 | Reba | Television movie |
| 2011 | The Mentalist | Aunt Jodie | Episode: "Blood for Blood" |
| 2011 | Rage of the Yeti | Villers | Television movie |
| 2012 | Lake Placid: The Final Chapter | Reba | Television movie |
| 2015 | Lake Placid vs. Anaconda | Reba | Television movie |
| 2017 | Boyfriend Killer | Carrie Ellington | Television movie |
| 2017 | Witness Protection | Susan | Television movie |

## Awards

On June 10, 2002, Butler won a Saturn Award for Best Actress in a Television Series, at the 29th Annual Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Awards ceremony, for her performances in Witchblade.