Marina Sirtis

Marina Sirtis (born 29 March 1955) is a British actress.

She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four Star Trek feature films, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.

Marina Sirtis was born in Hackney, London, the daughter of 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 teenage sons of her babysitter sexually molested her.

Sirtis suffered from an eating disorder, which emerged due to the trauma of the assault.

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.

Before her role in Star Trek, Sirtis was featured in supporting roles in several films.

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 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 sex worker who is murdered by a madman.

Other early works include numerous guest-starring roles on British television series.

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 Sirtis, whose appearance he considered "exotic", 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.

Deanna Troi is a half-human, half-Betazoid.

Her Betazoid abilities allow her to read the emotions of others.

Her position on the Enterprise-D is ship's counselor, looking after the crew's well-being and serving as trusted advisor to Captain Picard, with a position next to him on the bridge.

Initially, the writers found it difficult to write for Troi and even left her out of four first-season episodes.

Sirtis felt her job was in jeopardy after the first season, but was overjoyed when Roddenberry took her aside at Jonathan Frakes' wedding and told her that the season-two premiere episode would center on Troi.

Sirtis appeared in all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and her character was developed from a more passive therapist to a tougher Starfleet officer.

She has stated her favourite episode is season six's "Face of the Enemy", in which she is kidnapped and surgically altered to pose as a Romulan.

Troi's switching to a standard Starfleet uniform in the same season in "Chain of Command" elevated the character's dignity in Sirtis' eyes, and her enthusiasm in playing her, with Sirtis commenting, "It covered up my cleavage and, consequently, I got all my brains back, because when you have a cleavage you can't have brains in Hollywood. So I got all my brains back and I was allowed to do things that I hadn't been allowed to do for five or six years. I went on away teams, I was in charge of staff, I had my pips back, I had phasers, I had all the equipment again, and it was fabulous. I was absolutely thrilled."

During her time on the show, she became close friends with her co-stars Jonathan Frakes (who played Commander Riker), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf) and Brent Spiner (who played Lieutenant Commander Data).

The latter cast members were groomsmen at her wedding.

She wore black-coloured contact lenses during the seven-year run of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the subsequent films because her character had black eyes.

Her own eyes are light brown.

She usually wore hairpieces for her role as Troi.

Sirtis' real hair was slightly shorter and, although curly, was not as bouffant as her character's. However, Sirtis' real hair was used in the pilot episode, and also in the first six episodes of season six, in which Troi sported a more natural looking pony-tailed style.

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 still in secondary school, Sirtis secretly auditioned for drama school against her parents' wishes, ultimately being accepted to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.