Turanga Leela (referred to as Leela) is the primary female character in the television series Futurama. She is a fit, attractive cyclops who captains the Planet Express ship, and the "off-again, off-again" girlfriend of Fry.
Leela grew up in an orphanarium, knowing nothing of her parents, origins or species. She joined human society as an apparent alien from another planet, longing to discover her heritage, though aside from her one eye and purple hair she could pass as a normal human.
Her name is a simple pun on Olivier Messiaen's most famous work, the Turangalila Symphony, famous for its use of the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic musical instrument much used in the themes and incidental music of science-fiction movie and TV shows.
Leela is voiced by Katey Sagal.
During the fifth episode of the fourth season, Leela's Homeworld, it was revealed that Leela's parents Turanga Munda and Turanga Morris were actually sewer-dwelling mutants. The doctor who delivered her said, "she is the least mutated mutant I have ever seen." Her parents, not wanting her to endure the shame of being a mutant, left her on the doorstep of the orphanarium with a note written in an alien cipher (her mother had a degree in extra-terrestrial languages) so she could live her life under the guise of an alien.
Possessing only one eye has made life difficult for Leela, not because she is less able as a cyclops, but because she has received unfair treatment by her peers, and sometimes even superiors, because of it. Her poor depth perception on account of her one eye is often joked about in the series. She even suffers at the hands of the writers: when she worked for the cryogenics lab she was officer 1BDI ("one beady eye"), and she lives in "apartment 1I".
Leela is portrayed as the most competent and responsible character in Futurama. She captains the Planet Express spaceship, and usually saves the members of her crew when they find themselves in trouble.
Her biggest mistake was sleeping with Zapp Brannigan, made in the early parts of the series and regretted ever since the morning after.
