George Takei is a social justice activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author, and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek: The Original Series. He has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood in United States internment camps along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans. He now serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum’s Board of Trustees, and a member of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation Board of Directors. Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Bill Clinton, and, in 2004, was conferred with the Gold Rays with Rosette of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan for his contribution to US-Japan relations.
Actor, director, screenwriter, novelist, acting professor and comic book creator, Walter Koenig entered the Star Trek universe as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Season 2 of The Original Series. Koenig recreated the character of the Russian navigator for the first seven Star Trek films. His first book, “Chekov’s Enterprise,” which recounts the making of the first Star Trek movie, was published in 1979, and he also wrote one of the episodes of the Star Trek animated series, “The Infinite Vulcan.” Walter has dozens of stage and screen credits outside of Star Trek as well, including the recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel Bester on the television series Babylon 5 and the spin-off series Crusade. Koenig’s autobiography, “Warped Factors – A Neurotic’s Guide to the Universe” was released in 1998.
Sonequa Martin-Green is a versatile actress who continues to evolve her impressive body of work with ground-breaking, complex roles and memorable performances across TV, film and stage.
Sonequa stars as commander “Michael Burnham” in Star Trek: Discovery. In addition to receiving rave reviews for her role, she is making entertainment history as the first black female lead in the series. The USS Discovery uncovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer and her crew learn to understand all things alien.
Sonequa is widely known for her turn on AMC’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series, The Walking Dead, where she captivated audiences in the role of the fierce and loyal “Sasha Williams,” across five seasons. Additionally, Sonequa has taken many guest and reoccurring roles in fan favorite TV series, including FOX’s New Girl, ABC’s Once Upon A Time and CBS’s The Good Wife.
On the big screen, Sonequa received rave reviews for her starring role in Emily Abt’s Sundance hit Toe To Toe in which she played “Tosha Spinner,” a highly driven inner-city high school teenager. She was also featured in Victoria Mahoney’s film Yelling to the Sky alongside Gabourey Sidibe and Zoe Kravitz.
Denise Crosby was cast as Tasha Yar in 1987 for The Next Generation, after first being picked to play Deanna Troi. Tasha Yar was initially among the top-billed characters and was featured prominently in “The Naked Now” and “Code of Honor.” Crosby left the show after 22 episodes when her character was killed by the alien creature Armus. In the documentary Trekkies, Crosby said her Tasha Yar character had to die in order to get “the best episodes.” She reprised her role as Tasha Yar in Season 3’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” in which an alternate timeline was created.
An acclaimed stage and screen actor as well as an accomplished voice-over artist, John de Lancie is best known as the mysterious and godlike Q, appearing in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. While only appearing 9 times in 10 years, the cult popularity of Q is so widespread that John’s likeness has appeared in countless merchandising and promotional products. He’s been named “Best Villain,” “Best Recurring,” and “Best Loved” character. He’s also made appearances on such hit dramas as Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Law & Order, The Mentalist, and CSI.
Best known for her role as the warm and lighthearted Jadzia Dax in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from 1993-1998, Terry Farrell was destined for greatness since childhood. Her career started at 16 years old as a model, which led to commercials for Maybelline, AT&T and Oil of Olay. Her big acting break came at 19 when she read for the ABC TV series Paper Dolls and the roles continued with Beverly Hills Madam, Back To School, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, and Becker (Farrell’s gig after departing the space station after the sixth season of DS9). She credits acting coach Ivana Chubbuck, who she met on the first season of DS9.
Nana Visitor appeared in Broadway plays, had regular roles on TV and starred in the title role of Working Girl before joining Deep Space Nine as Bajoran Major Kira Nerys. The role piqued her curiosity because Kira Nerys wasn’t “a mother, or a wife, or a prostitute, or a killer. [Kira] is fully realized.” She also voiced the character in the games Harbinger and The Fallen. Following Deep Space Nine, she starred on Broadway in the Tony Award-wining musical Chicago and later appeared in the series Dark Angel and Wildfire.
Max Grodénchik is best known for his portrayal of Rom on Deep Space Nine over the course of 37 episodes. Before getting the role of Rom, he auditioned for the role of Rom’s brother, Quark, and played two other Ferengi characters on The Next Generation: Sovak in “Captain’s Holiday” and Par Lenor in “The Perfect Mate.” He wrote and performed Rom’s Song and performed the song “The Lady is a Tramp” in the Deep Space Nine episode “The Siege of AR-558.” He also played a NASA flight dynamics officer in Apollo 13.
Chase Masterson is best known for her 5-year breakout role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, reprising her roles of Leeta and Mirror Leeta in Star Trek Online. She has the title role in the Doctor Who Big Finish spinoff VIENNA, now in Season 4.
Among a myriad of other roles, Chase has Guest-Starred on The Flash, hosted Sci-Fi Entertainment and starred opposite Bruce Campbell in Terminal Invasion for SyFy, played opposite Jerry O’Connell in Sliders, and co-hosted NBC Sunday Night at the Movies with Ryan Seacrest. Guest-Star credits include an episode of the Emmy-winning ER and Presidio Med, and a Recurring role on General Hospital. Chase played opposite Richard Lewis in a cameo role Mel Brooks wrote for her in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Feature film leads include a mysterious jazz singer in eOne’s acclaimed sci-fi noir, Yesterday Was a Lie and a lead in the recently released Unbelievable!!!!!. She has lead roles in the upcoming features Manipulated, Skipping Stones, and Je Suis Auto, all due out in 2021.
Chase was named in AOL’s 10 Sexiest Aliens in Television History, Screen Rant’s 15 Most Stunning Aliens in Star Trek, Femme Fatales’ 50 Sexiest Women, Film Fetish’s Hot Leading Ladies of Film, and TV Guide Online readers’ poll’s Favorite Sci-Fi Actress on TV during the run of DS9. She is a singer who has headlined at Las Vegas’ Voodoo Lounge, Universal City Walk, and the Sofiensaal in Vienna, Austria. She was an Artist-In-Residence at the Vienna MuseumsQuartier in November, 2019.
Chase has mentored kids coming out of gangs since 2008 at Homeboy Industries. She is the Founder/CEO of www.PopCultureHero.org, the 1st 501c3 teaching mental health skills and working to end bullying, racism, misogyny, LGBTQI-bullying and cyberbullying by using relatable pop culture stories in schools. The Coalition also works in comic-cons and children’s hospitals. Chase has spoken at the United Nations, Google, UNESCO, TEDxVienna, the International Bullying Prevention Association, the World Anti-Bullying Forum, YMCA USA forums, on CBS News, and at the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. See more info at @ChaseMasterson and @SuperheroIRL.
Casey Biggs is an actor, director, producer, musician and teacher who portrayed Damar on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for five years. He created The Enterprise Blues Band with fellow members Vaughn Armstrong and Steve Rankin, who recordings have been best sellers throughout Europe and the U.S. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is well known in both the world of the stage and television andhas performed throughout the country and Europe. He has appeared in Lincoln Center’s Pride’s Crossing and spent ten years as a leading actor at Washington’s Arena Stage in productions of Taming of the Shrew, All the Kings Men, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Summer and Smoke, It’s a Wonderful Life, and The Philadelphia Story among others. Film and television credits include Broken Arrow, Dragonfly, The Pelican Brief, The Good Wife, Elementary, CSI, and Person of Interest.. His directing credits include Hedda Gabler, Hamlet, The Seagull, Richard III, The Three Sisters, Standup Shakespeare and Macbeth plus, for The Acting Company, Moby Dick Rehearsed, The Three Musketeers and Love, Shakespeare. He is an alumni of The Acting Company and is on the acting and directing faculty at the New School for Drama.
Cirroc Lofton played the role of Jake Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine throughout all seven seasons of the show. When he was cast in 1992 for the role, Lofton became the youngest person ever to appear as a regular on a Star Trek series. He was only a few weeks past his 14th birthday when he filmed his first scenes for the DS9 pilot, “Emissary.”
After DS9 ended Lofton was cast as a main character on The Hoop Life, airing in 1999 and 2000. Other television credits included 7th Heaven, Invasion, CSI: MIami and All American. Prior to DS9, he appeared in the 1992 movie Beethoven. Lofton is the nephew of former Major League Baseball player Kenny Lofton.
Interviewed for the 2018 documentary What We Left Behind, Lofton stated that Every Brooks treated him not only like his television son, but like his real-life son, a relationship that has continued since the series ended.
Award-winning theater director, actor and poet Robert “Bob” O’Reilly has been a Star Trek fan since 1967. O’Reilly has appeared in over a hundred films and television episodes, primarily as either the antagonist or as a villain. He has had arguments with Carroll O’Connor, a gunfight with Willie Nelson, and been arrested by Bill Shatner, all in the name of “The Bad Guy.” O’Reilly appeared in the Star Trek franchise for over ten years, primarily in his recurring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Chancellor Gowron, the leader of the Klingon Empire, a character he based on the Shakespearian character King Lear. Q’apla!
Robert Picardo enrolled at Yale as a pre-med student, not knowing that he would someday portray doctors in three separate productions: Dr. Dick Richard on China Beach, then as Dr. McCaskill “In The Waiting Room,” and, most famously, as the Holographic Doctor for all 7 seasons of Voyager. One of the two Voyager episodes Bob also directed, “One Small Step,” was a moving tribute to the pioneers of space exploration. Combining his 40-plus-year acting career with a lifelong interest in science, Bob served for over 15 years on the advisory board of The Planetary Society.
Born in California, Garrett Wang spent his formative years on the move, living in Indiana, Bermuda and Tennessee before moving back to California to attend UCLA to major in East Asian Studies and minor in theater. Garrett signed with his first talent agent in 1993 and within a year he landed his first speaking role, guest starring on All American Girl. Three months later, Wang was cast in the role of Harry Kim on Voyager. Garrett was named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People as well as one of E! Channel’s “20 Coolest Bachelors.”
Tim Russ has been working within the entertainment industry for over thirty years. Star Trek fans know him from his role as Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, as well as the film Star Trek: Generations. His talents encompass a wide spectrum of the performing arts including composing, music (guitar & vocals), acting, writing, directing, voice-over and producing. Mr. Russ received his B.S. in Theater at St. Edward’s University, Austin TX, and completed one year of post graduate work in theater at Illinois State University. As an actor, Mr. Russ has worked in a cross section of film and television. His film credits include; Live Free and Die Hard and Spaceballs, and series regular roles on The Highwayman, The People Next Door, Samantha Who, and iCarly. He has also appeared in numerous stage plays including the original Los Angeles premier of Dreamgirls. Russ has performed as a musician for over 40 years, playing rhythm, lead, and bass guitars, well as solo vocals. His musical talents are showcased on three CD’s currently distributed through iTunes and CD Baby.
As a writer/producer Mr. Russ currently shared the helm in the production of the feature, East of Hope Street, which won Best Feature Film and Best Actress on the festival circuit. He was also the recipient of the Sony Innovator’s Award for a commercial he produced entitled, “The Zone.” Mr. Russ has also been active in the TV/Film directing arena with credits including, Star Trek: Voyager and the feature films, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the award winning web series Bloomers and a collection of short stories he has written and directed entitled “FRAME OF MIND,” volumes I & II. Mr. Russ has also received an Emmy Award for his directing on several commercials for the FBI. Mr. Russ has expanded his performing talents to include voice-over, including Cartoon Network’s Symbionic Titans, 6 audio books, a number of video games, and several radio commercials.
Known for his role as Doctor Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise for four years, John Billingsley has carved out a distinct niche for himself with unique character roles in more than 150 film and television appearances. “Dear Doctor” was the first Phlox-heavy Enterprise episode, and in a 2013 interview with StarTrek.com, Billingsley explained that he appreciated the fact that a Phlox hour followed the Trek tradition of tackling an issue with a lot of gray area. In 2001, Billingsley also played himself in an episode of Roswell that used the Enterprise set. In 2002, he was a guest star in an episode of Stargate SG-1, playing a scientist who is also a Trekkie. One of Billingsley’s earliest roles was in the TV comedy-drama Northern Exposure, then in the cult phenomenon The X-Files.
Thrilled to be rejoining Star Trek: The Cruise in 2021, Connor Trinneer is most known for playing Charles “Trip” Tucker III on Star Trek: Enterprise and Michael Kenmore on Stargate Atlantis. Originally from Washington state, Connor discovered acting in college, went to drama school and found himself in New York upon graduation. Regional theater work quickly followed and his career went on to span film and television as well. His big break came with Enterprise, which led to dozens of extraordinary roles and his epic appearances on Star Trek: The Cruise! Besides Enterprise and Atlantis, Connor has appeared in American Made, The Resident, NCIS, The Mentalist, Suits, Pretty Little Liars and was in all of season 2 of The Purge.
Anthony Montgomery landed the series-regular role of Ensign Travis Mayweather on Star Trek: Enterprise in 2001. For the next four years, Anthony piloted Enterprise’s NXO1 into many adventures and into the hearts of loyal Star Trek fans around the world. Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005 and Anthony was with the series until the very end. Early in his career, Anthony guest starred on such shows as J.A.G., Charmed, Frasier and Resurrection Blvd. His big break came with a recurring role as George Auston on the WB television series, Popular. In October 2008, Anthony pursued a different artistic interest and released his debut Hip Hop music album, A.T. The album made Anthony the first actor in the Star Trek franchise to release music in the Hip Hop genre. In 2013, Anthony added producer to his list of credits and launched his own sci-fi franchise called Miles Away, beginning with a graphic novel that toured the world and is slated to be developed into an animated series.
As Lt. Paul Stamets on Star Trek: Discovery, Anthony Rapp has been front and center in Star Trek action sequences and science conversations as well as loving and heartbreaking moments. An original cast member in the Tony Award-winning rock opera Rent, Anthony later reprised the role in the film version and the Broadway Tour. Additional Broadway credits include You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Six Degrees of Separation; and most recently, If/Then. He is also the author of the memoir “Without You,” which he adapted into a one-man show that toured the United States and London. His film and television credits include Adventures in Babysitting, School Ties, Dazed and Confused, A Beautiful Mind, The Knick, The Good Fight, 13 Reasons Why, and Star Trek: Discovery.
Award-winning actor, activist and humanitarian Wilson Cruz stars as Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery, which premieres its 4th Season in 2021. Joining Star Trek: The Cruise’s stellar team of doctors aboard Cruise V, Dr. Hugh Culber first appeared as a recurring guest star in Discovery Season 1 before becoming a regular cast member for Season 2 and beyond.
Wilson has also appeared on the Netflix series Thirteen Reasons Why and in Hulu’s 2020 GLAAD Award-winning original animated kids’ series The Bravest Knight. He is also the Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed docuseries called Visible: Out On Television airing on Apple TV+ that investigates the importance of TV as an intimate medium that has shaped the American conscience, and how the LGBTQ movement has shaped television.
Receiving the Emery S. Hetrick Award from the Hetrick- Martin Institute for Outstanding Contributions to LGBTQ Youth for his role as Rickie Vasquez on the ABC series My So Called Life, Wilson became the first openly gay actor playing an openly gay role on series television. Cruz also starred as Angel in the West Coast premiere of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical Rent, which earned him both The Ovation and Drama Logue awards before his reprisal of the role on Broadway.
Mary Chieffo is known internationally as the Klingon Commander turned Chancellor L’Rell on the award-winning Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery, most recently returning as her iconic character for the highly popular Star Trek Online.
When she wasn’t covered in prosthetics and speaking Klingon, Mary produced, wrote, and starred as Iago in Operation Othello — a feminist, gender, and color conscious Virtual Reality adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello alongside Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions in the spring of 2018 (Official Cannes XR and Raindance XR Selection).
Chieffo received her BFA from Juilliard in 2015, flourishing in her passion for classic text and reveling in the opportunity to take on strong female and male roles in Shakespeare canon, including King Lear, Queen Elizabeth, and the title role in Erica Schmidt’s all-female Macbeth. For her exceptional work in the four year program, Juilliard presented Mary with the prestigious Elizabeth Smith Voice and Speech Prize and the Saint-Denis Prize for “Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Drama.”
In 2019, Chieffo returned to the LA stage starring in the Bespoke Plays workshopped reading of Analogue by esteemed television writer Christine Boylan (The Punisher, Cloak & Dagger) as well as the XR stage for Peter Flaherty’s Empire at Sea, an Augmented Reality project produced by Intel (Tribeca Film Festival Official Selection). In the spring of 2020, Mary developed and directed Closed Circuit, a new play premiering at the NYC Frigid Festival (WINNER Best Original Script). In the fall, Chieffo produced, hosted and guest starred in Ripley Improv’s Heartbeats — “a fully improvised medical dramedy” — streaming live on Twitch for eight weeks in a row. After a second run of Heartbeats at the beginning of 2021, Chieffo appeared as Dr. Elizabeth Diamond, PhD in Ripley’s new monster-hunting genre SLAY, directed by Aliza Pearl.
She lives in Los Angeles.
Emily Coutts is currently playing Lieutenant Keyla Detmer on CBS’s hit show Star Trek: Discovery. She is a graduate of The Acting Conservatory at The Canadian Film Centre and also holds a BFA in Acting from York University. Her other film and television credits include Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Dark Matter, The Girlfriend Experience, The Greatest Christmas Party Ever, and Murdoch Mysteries. Coutts also produced and starred in the indie feature Barn Wedding and is currently working on her first upcoming short film, Dear, Jesus.
Jayne Brook (Starfleet admiral Katrina Cornwell on Star Trek, Discovery) was a series regular for four and a half seasons on the acclaimed drama Chicago Hope. Other television credits include series regular roles on John Doe, Imagine That, The District, Sirens, WIOU; recurring roles on Boston Legal, Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Sports Night, Everwood; and guest star roles on Revenge, Rizolli and Isles, Off the Map, Clean Slate, Eli Stone, Grey’s Anatomy, Without a Trace, and Jack and Bobby. Her television movies include Doing Time on Maple Drive, My Mother the Spy, The Dan Jansen Story, and Trauma. Her feature film credits include Kindergarten Cop, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Clean Slate, Bye Bye Love, Last Dance, Into the Heart, and Gattaca. She starred opposite Christine Lahti at the Geffen Playhouse in the LA premiere of Wendy Wasserstein’s play Third and played Goneril in Patsy Rodenberg’s LA directorial debut of Shakespeare’s King Lear. She also starred opposite Didi Conn and Lawrence Pressman in Elliot Shoenman’s play A Heap of Livin at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles. Jayne appeared on stage in London in Dreams in an Empty City and Every Black Day. Other stage credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, and You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow. Currently, Jayne can be seen in a recurring role on Major Crimes, as well as Star Trek, Discovery. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband John Terlesky and their two daughters.
Actor/singer Isa Briones is a series regular on Star Trek: Picard. Isa plays multiple characters opposite Sir Patrick Stewart, who reprised his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Born to show business parents Jon Jon Briones (Netflix’s Ratched, Miss Saigon) and Megan Johnson Briones (Miss Saigon), Isa’s most recent credits include FX’s American Crime Story: Versace (recurring), the First National Touring Company of Hamilton, and Next to Normal (East West Players), for which she won an L.A. Ovation Award. Isa also lent her amazing voice to Picard’s finale in their first season.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Evan Evagora has a starring role in Star Trek: Picard as Elnor, a Romulan combat expert. He is the first Australian to be a regular cast member in a Star Trek TV series.
The youngest of seven siblings, Evagora grew up excelling in sports, learning boxing at a very young age (instructed by his father, an ex-professional) as well as playing Australian football. His family also pushed him to pursue his creative interests, having starred in school productions throughout primary school.
As he entered high school, Evagora’s focus shifted primarily to sports, winning a state boxing championship as well as competing in football finals. At the end of his schooling, he took a gap year across Europe with a group of friends before enrolling into film school. During his study he was scouted and then later moved to Sydney to pursue his acting career.
Dr. Mohamed Noor is a biology professor, the Dean of Natural Sciences at Duke University, and a science consultant for the Star Trek Universe. He earned a PhD from the University of Chicago, he conducts research and teaches in the areas of genetics and evolution, and he focuses on finding genetic changes that cause new species to form. He is also committed to biology education and a lifelong Trekkie, demonstrated by his Genetics and Evolution course on Coursera and his book "Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us About Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds."
Dr. Stephen Granade is a physicist and writer who lives in Huntsville, Alabama, the city with its own Saturn V rocket. He specializes in robotics and machine learning. He’s built equipment that’s on the Hubble Space Telescope and helped develop a fingerprint reader that works from ten feet away. He’s only set himself on fire with a laser once.
Lolita Fatjo worked for 14 years as Assistant to the Executive Producer and later as Script Coordinator on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: First Contact. Throughout the years she built good working relationships with many of the stars, soon transitioning to the role of manager for many Star Trek actors. Her reputation for being fan-friendly and approachable along with her first-hand knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes has made her a fan-favorite as a guest on the convention circuit.
Lolita served as talent coordinator on the hit DS9 Documentary “What We Left Behind” and is currently a producer and talent coordinator on the Voyager Documentary: “To the Journey” which the team of 455 Films shot partly on Star Trek: The Cruise in 2020.
Jordan Hoffman is a writer and critic based in New York. His work can be read in The Guardian, Vanity Fair, New York Daily News, Popular Mechanics, Thrillist and NYT/Watching. He also writes the One Trek Mind column at StarTrek.com. He has hosted at Star Trek conventions in Las Vegas, New York, London and Dortmund, Germany, and was the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast for two years. Bones is his favorite.
Robb Pearlman is the author of more than 30 books for adults and children, including four Star Trek titles: Search for Spock, Redshirt’s Little Book of Doom, The Wit and Wisdom of Star Trek, and Fun with Kirk and Spock.
He is an associate publisher of pop culture and entertainment books including Stuck on Star Trek, Bob Ross: The Joy of Painting, The Bob’s Burgers Burger Book, and The Princess Bride: A Celebration, and a calendar program that includes major licenses as Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Bob’s Burgers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files.
Robb was featured as an on-air commentator talking about Star Trek and pop culture on National Geographic Channel’s “Generation X” series, contributed to HuffingtonPost.com, performed at the Nerdnite Nerdtacular, and has been featured on StarTrek.com as well as several pop culture blogs and SiriusXM radio shows.
Robb received his Masters in Publishing from Pace University, and now serves on the program’s Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Teachers & Writers Collaborative.
Megan Levens is a cartoonist, illustrator and longtime Trekkie, known for her work on IDW Publishing’s Star Trek comics series Boldly Go, Waypoint, and Year Five. A self-described “TNG baby and Spock fangirl,” she credits her love of Trek with inspiring her to pursue a career as a visual storyteller, to connect people and explore our common humanity through tales of the fantastical and otherworldly. She has also produced several creator-owned graphic novels.
After becoming an IATSE Local 706 (Make-Up Artists & Hairstylists Guild) member in 1990, Karen Westerfield was honored to get her first Union Make-Up call to work on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which she made up a Klingon. Thanks to Michael Westmore, whom she met on Master’s of the Universe, Karen began her fantastic adventure as a Prosthetic Make-Up Artist in the Star Trek franchise for the next 21 years, ending with doing Shinzon’s (Tom Hardy) make-up on Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002.
Karen has been nominated for 12 Prime Time Emmy Awards in which she has won three, ALL for Star Trek (ST: TNG 1992; ST: DS9 1993; & ST: DS9 1995). When you ask her about her life on Star Trek, Karen will tell you, “It was an incredible time…long, long hours mixed with fun, laughter, love, hate, marriage, birth, divorce, camaraderie and history. I wouldn’t trade one second of my time working on Star Trek for anything…except for enormous bags of Quark’s Gold Pressed Latinum!”
Karen is currently an Active Retiree of Local 706 and a staunch Union Activist. She loves sharing her knowledge of Professional Make-Up Artistry and Labor issues. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, has one daughter, Allison (born during the 3rd Season of ST: DS9), and two pandemic rescue cats named Goma and Chibi.
Band 47 is a Los Angeles based 60s, 70s and 80s classic rock R&B group, consisting of Steel Rod and DW3. The classic rock, R&B, and blues trio with the soulful vocals of Eric, Billy and David of DW3 create a perfect combination. In addition to these two powerhouse groups, along came Rebecca Jade with her soulful sound and rock influences, making a perfect addition to this very versatile group.
Christopher Olivas is not only the drummer for the acclaimed and classic synth-pop band Berlin, he is also an electrifying DJ. On Star Trek: The Cruise, he will keep the ship dancing with his eclectic music selections and deep cuts. Christopher’s energy and encyclopedic knowledge of music adds yet another level to the music experience aboard Star Trek: The Cruise.