Marina Sirtis (born March 29, 1955) is a British actress who is most noted for playing the half-human half-Betazoid Counselor Deanna Troi on the television and film series Star Trek: The Next Generation. She also provided the voice of Demona in the animated series, Gargoyles. She is also noted for appearing in the Oscar winning movie Crash as well as a semi regular on Girlfriends.
Sirtis was born in London, England. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen of Greek descent. Marina Sirtis has been married to Michael Lamper since June 21, 1992. Her younger brother, Steve, plays soccer in Greece and played for Columbia University in the early 1980s. She auditioned for drama school against her parents' wishes. She attended the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Before her role in Star Trek, Sirtis had appeared in several movies, including the Faye Dunaway film The Wicked Lady, the Charles Bronson sequel Death Wish 3, and film Blind Date. She appeared topless in the first and nude in the latter two. She did have an established CV of British television work, appearing in Minder, Raffles and The Return of Sherlock Holmes amongst other things. She played the stewardess in the famous Cinzano Bianco television commercial staring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, in which Collins was splattered with drink.
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.[citation needed] Sirtis and Denise Crosby initially tried out for the other's eventual role 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 Natasha Yar. Sirtis recalls that on the day she received a call offering her the role of Deanna Troi, she was actually packing to return to England, because her six-month visa had ended.
Sirtis appeared in all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and her character was developed from a more passive therapist to tougher Starfleet officer, much to Sirtis's approval. Initially, Sirtis's character was proposed to be the brains of the ship.
During her time on the show, she became close friends with her co-stars Jonathan Frakes, who played her on-again/off-again lover Commander Riker, Michael Dorn and Brent Spiner. In fact, cast members Spiner and Dorn were groomsmen at her wedding.
Sirtis has also reprised her character of Deanna Troi in Star Trek: Voyager on several occasions, not to mention in all of the Next Generation feature films and also in the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise. She is one of only six actors to play the same character on three different 'Star Trek' series.
Sirtis also has several action figures modeled after her likeness and her character, Deanna Troi, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
She usually wore hair-pieces for her role as Deanna Troi in Star Trek The Next Generation. 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.[citation needed]
After the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1994 Sirtis continued to work regularly. She gained experience as a voice actress from the 1994 Disney animated television series Gargoyles, where she provided her voice for the antagonistic character Demona. She voiced the character again for an episode of the unmade Animated Series, Team Atlantis.
She appeared in other genre television shows such as Stargate SG-1 playing the Russian Dr. Svetlana Markov and as Sister Margaret in Earth: Final Conflict. as well as independent movies including Paradise Lost . In 1998, she had a guest role in an episode of the Dick Van Dyke CBS series, Diagnosis: Murder. In 2001, she made a highly publicized guest appearance on the BBC hospital drama series Casualty.
Sirtis has expanded her career branching out into production, most recently producing The Deep Below.
In 2004, Sirtis had a role in the Academy Award winning ensemble movie Crash as the wife of an Iranian shopkeeper. For this role, she did not need to audition and was given the part immediately.
Sirtis continues to work and is still recognizable on US television and in films. Recent appearances include a controversial appearance in The Closer, a recurring comedy role as Gina Richards in Girlfriends, and a guest starring role in Without a Trace as Alexa Soros. In 2007 she appeared as The Queen in the movie Grendel. She has several films in production including Oranges and Trade Routes.
