6 Things You Should Know About Terry Farrell

Happy birthday, Terry Farrell. Yes, today is the birthday of Trek fan favorite Farrell, who played Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for six of the show’s seven seasons. To mark the occasion, StarTrek.com thought we’d share 6 Things You Should Know About Terry Farrell. Here goes:

Farrell, who was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, kicked off her career as a model while still a teenager. She graced the covers of both Seventeen and Mademoiselle.

As an actress, Farrell made her small-screen debut on the series Paper Dolls. The show, which ran for one season in 1984, cast Farrell as Laurie Caswell. Co-stars include Lloyd Bridges, Jennifer Warren, Nicolette Sheridan and Morgan Fairchild, as well as future Trek figures Jonathan Frakes and Richard Beymer.

In 1992, not long before landing her role as Jadzia on DS9, Farrell guest starred on Quantum Leap, in the episode “A Leap for Lisa,” playing the title character, a friend/ex-flame of the young Al (Enterprise guest Dean Stockwell’s character, portrayed in the episode by Enterprise leading man Scott Bakula). Bonus tidbits: another character in the episode is named Riker and the director, James Whitmore, Jr., later directed an episode of Enterprise.

Farrell was the last series regular cast for DS9, and the pilot was already in production when Farrell won the role of Jadzia. Once she landed the part, she basically went straight into costume fittings and makeup tests, then stepped in front of the camera. “I was a nervous wreck,” Farrell recalled in a StarTrek.com interview in 2011. “I was really excited. After everything I had to do to get the role, I was stunned when I got there and saw how big the set was. It was so intimidating and overwhelming, and I was already so overtired from all the makeup tests and all the excitement. I was so skinny then. I wasn’t eating as healthy as I should have. I was smoking then, so that wasn’t good. But I felt like I was under an enormous amount of pressure. Pretty much everything else had been shot and we had to shoot my stuff. Then they changed my makeup. I guess I had a forehead and they didn’t like how that looked. Michael Westmore came up with the spots and took out the forehead. So we had to re-shoot. And, I’m just not a good sleep-deprived person. I learned so much, but it was really like being thrown in the trenches. I wish I could go back and do it again now. Knowing what I know now, I think I’m far better prepared to play Dax, just as a woman, as a human being on the planet. Being (53) years old. I think I’d do a far better job of playing Dax right now.”

Farrell retired from acting in order to raise her son, Max. In order to keep busy and stay healthy, Farrell became a certified yoga instructor.

An asteroid discovered in 2001 was named 26734 Terryfarrell. It was given that name by William Kwong Yu Yeung, a/k/a Bill Yeung, the Hong Kong-born, Canadian amateur astronomer who discovered it.

Please join us in wishing Terry a happy birthday.