Marina Sirtis

Sirtis married Michael Lamper, an actor and rock guitarist, in 1992. Lamper died in his sleep on 7 December 2019.

In 2014, she co-starred in the SyFy channel horror movie Finders Keepers. The following year, she appeared in the British film A Dark Reflection, and in 2016, Sirtis starred in the Hallmark Channel movie My Summer Prince. In 2019, Sirtis made her London West End stage debut in Dark Sublime, playing the character of Marianne, a jobbing actor and now-forgotten icon of a British sci-fi TV show, whose encounter with a fan changes both of their lives.

In 2012, the vampire movie Speed Demons, in which Sirtis co-starred, was released to pay-per-view services. The same year, she played a fortune teller in the Castlevania fan-made series posted on YouTube. She accepted a recurring role as director of Mossad on NCIS. Her character, Orli Elbaz, succeeds Eli David (portrayed by Michael Nouri) and was introduced in the season-10 episode "Berlin", which aired in April 2013. She subsequently appeared in the second episode of season 11, which aired in early October 2013, and in the season 13 finale "Family First".

In September 2011, fans started a group to lobby for Sirtis to appear on Doctor Who. A few weeks later at the Montreal Comiccon, she acknowledged the group and her desire to be on the show.

In 2010, Sirtis guest-starred as a Swiss doctor in two episodes of ABC Family's Make It or Break It. In May 2010, Sirtis announced that she would be providing the voice for comic-book villainess Queen Bee in the Young Justice animated series. She provided her voice for a number of episodes from 2011 until its cancellation in 2013. In March 2011, Sirtis guest-starred on an episode of Grey's Anatomy. She played an Iranian mother who was at the hospital to participate in a medical trial for Alzheimer's disease.

The direct-to-DVD sequels Green Street 2 and The Grudge 3, featuring Sirtis, were released in 2009. She co-starred in the British movie 31 North 62 East as the prime minister's top aide; it had a limited theatrical release in the UK. Sirtis guest-starred in the first episode of the short-lived hospital drama Three Rivers. She returned to SyFy in December 2009 in the disaster movie Annihilation Earth.

In 2008, she made a guest appearance in an episode of the Casualty spin-off show Holby City. The same year, the sci-fi/drama movie Inalienable, written by Star Trek alumnus Walter Koenig, was released. Sirtis said of her role, "I actually play the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, so I'm a bad guy, a mean lawyer, which was fantastic."

Sirtis appeared in the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise (2005).

Sirtis had a minor role in the Academy Award-winning ensemble film Crash as the wife of the Persian shopkeeper. Following this, she played another Middle Eastern role on the series The Closer in 2005. In 2006, she had a three-episode recurring role as a love match-maker on Girlfriends, and she guest-starred in Without a Trace. In 2007, Sirtis starred in the SyFy channel production of Grendel, where she played Queen Onela. Independent movies Trade Routes, The Deep Below, and Lesser of Three Evils were released. She provided the voice for Matriarch Benezia in the critically acclaimed video game Mass Effect on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Sirtis starred in the movie Spectres in 2004, and at ShockerFest International Film Festival, she won the best actress award.

In 2001, Sirtis made a highly publicised appearance on the long-running British hospital drama Casualty. She played a politician with controversial views on the National Health Service. When she meets with a man with whom she is having an affair at a hotel, she is caught in an explosion. She appeared in the made-for-television movies Terminal Error in 2002 and Net Games in 2003. Also in 2003, she guest-starred in the ABC series Threat Matrix playing a biological-weapons scientist from Iraq.

Sirtis also appeared in Star Trek: Voyager for three episodes toward the end of the series (1999 and 2000).

Beginning in 1999, Sirtis returned to science-fiction television in a number of roles starting with The Outer Limits. The same year, she appeared in Earth: Final Conflict, originally created by Gene Roddenberry. In 2000, she played a Russian scientist in Stargate SG-1. Sirtis was interviewed in the October 2000 issue of SFX magazine in the UK; the cover stated, "Marina Sirtis is Everywhere", also referring to her reprisal of her character Deanna Troi on Star Trek: Voyager.

In 1996, Sirtis starred as a villainous police detective in the British made-for-television movie, Gadgetman. She played a villainess once again when she guest-starred as a race-track owner under investigation following the death of a driver in Diagnosis: Murder in 1998. The independent movie Paradise Lost, with Sirtis in a starring role, was released in 1999.

Sirtis has reprised her character in the feature films, Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek First Contact (1996), Star Trek Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek Nemesis (2002).

She provided the voice of Demona in the animated Disney television series Gargoyles for two seasons starting in 1994. Her Next Generation co-stars, Frakes (as the voice of David Xanatos), Spiner and Dorn, also lent their voices to the show. She voiced the character again for an episode of the unmade animated series Team Atlantis.

Marina Sirtis was born in Hackney, London, the daughter of working-class Greek parents, Despina, a tailor's assistant, and John Sirtis. She was brought up in Harringay, North London. When she was three years old, Sirtis says, the teenaged sons of her babysitter sexually molested her. Sirtis suffered from an eating disorder, which emerged due to the trauma of the assault. After suffering from the disorder for 20 years, she went into therapy in the 1990s and was able to manage the trauma and learn to eat healthily again.

While filming Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sirtis returned to the UK during the hiatus between seasons three and four in 1990 to film a drama special entitled One Last Chance for the BBC. In 1992, she appeared in an episode of the short-lived series The Fifth Corner and had a cameo in the horror/fantasy movie Waxwork II: Lost in Time. After the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1994, Sirtis continued to work regularly. Her first role was a departure from previous work, an abused wife in the series Heaven Help Us.

In 1986, Sirtis emigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles to boost her career. She later became a naturalized US citizen.

In 1986, Sirtis relocated to the United States. When casting Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry was inspired to ask the exotic-looking Sirtis to audition for a role after seeing the film Aliens with Bob Justman, which featured the prominent Latina character Vasquez, played by Jenette Goldstein. Sirtis and Denise Crosby initially tried out for each other's eventual roles on The Next Generation. Sirtis' character was going to be named Lt. Macha Hernandez, the Security Chief. Gene Roddenberry decided to switch them, and Macha Hernandez became Tasha Yar. Sirtis recalls that on the day she received the call offering her the role, she was actually packing to return to Britain, because her six-month visa had expired.

Before her role in Star Trek, Sirtis was featured in supporting roles in several films. In the 1983, Faye Dunaway film, The Wicked Lady, she engaged in a whip fight with Dunaway. In the Charles Bronson sequel Death Wish 3, Sirtis' character is a rape victim. In the film Blind Date, she appears as a prostitute who is murdered by a madman.

Other early works include numerous guest-starring roles on British television series. Sirtis appeared in Raffles (1977), Who Pays the Ferryman (1977), Hazell (1978), Minder (1979), the Jim Davidson sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1985), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986). She also played the flight attendant in a 1979 Cinzano Bianco television commercial starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, in which Collins was splattered with drink.

In 1976, at the age of 21, Sirtis graduated from Guildhall and began her career by joining the Connaught Theatre.

Sirtis started her career as a member of the repertory company at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, West Sussex, in 1976. Directed by Nic Young, she appeared in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw and as Ophelia in Hamlet.

Marina Sirtis (/ˈ s ɜːr t ɪ s / ; born 29 March 1955) is a British-American actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the four feature films that followed, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.