We all know that Joss Whedon has a knack for discovering actresses with that incommunicable ability to convey great strength and resilience, from Sarah Michelle Gellar’s genre-altering Buffy Summers, to the various roles he provides for Eliza Dushku or Amy Acker.

With Summer Glau, though, he found something truly special, and that’s a sentiment shared by anyone who’s ever seen her on-screen. Making her move into internet television with The Human Preservation Project, it’s mighty revealing to look at her slow, yet meteoric in retrospect, rise to becoming the geek-favourite and enigmatic performer we know and love today.

Sure, she can act most of her co-stars off the screen when required, but she does so with a grace and understatement that’s incredibly difficult to find; you only have to watch any given female-centric network show to realise that.

It’s entirely possible that, if one could bottle the ‘Glau effect’ and sell it on, show-runners and Hollywood’s most elite would be lining up around the block. One part sex kitten, two parts lost little girl, Glau straddles the line perfectly, and has displayed a versatility that most actresses would kill for. But, if you haven’t heard of her, and there are many who haven’t, you’d be instantly forgiven.