Gabrielle is a fictional character in Xena: Warrior Princess, played by Renée O'Connor. She is referred to, by fans, as the Battling Bard of Potidaea. Her trademark weapons are the Amazon fighting staff and the sai.
Renée O'Connor was chosen to play the role after she impressed producers with her role in the Hercules television movie The Lost Kingdom.
Her name is the feminine of Gabriel, from the Hebrew, which means "messenger of God". That is the name of the chief of Archangels, and during the show, Gabrielle becomes an Archangel. While Gabrielle is typically a French given name, it has a grammatically correct Greek feminine ending and contains no anti-Greek sounds (pronounced as Gab-ree-el-lay). Also, the Greek version of "Gabrielle" is Γαβριήλα, (Gavrila).
In the two musical episodes, Gabrielle's singing voice was provided by Susan Wood.