Whatever Happened To Roxann Dawson, B'Elanna Torres From 'Star Trek: Voyager'?

Roxann Dawson was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 11th, 1964. She has also been credited as Roxann Briggs and Roxxan Biggs-Dawson since her career began in 1985. She is a writer, producer, director, and actor most famous for acting in Star Trek: Voyager as half-Klingon B’Elanna Torres.

Roxann Dawson is 5’ 5” (1.65 m). Her parents are Richard and Rosalie Caballero. When she lived in Los Angeles, she attended the same high school, Beverly Hills High School, as Angelina Jolie, Michael Klesic, Nicolas Cage, Corbin Bernsen, Lenny Kravitz, and David Schwimmer.

While there, she was in the music and drama programs. She was also a childhood friend of Leslie Carol Shatner, daughter of Star Trek’s William Shatner.

Roxann Dawson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Theater Arts major.

Early Career

Roxann Dawson’s early career focused on the theater. She landed her first professional acting role as Diana Morales in the final years of A Chorus Line, starting in 1982.

She also appeared in numerous productions, including Julie Taymor’s Tempest. She was also a member of the Circle Repertory Company and involved with their shows The Early Girl and V&V Only, among other projects.

Also, she made a rather charming appearance on a 1990 episode of Geraldo to discuss the closing of A Chorus Line on Broadway.

Roxann Dawson’s Acting Career

Roxann Dawson’s first significant role was in the 1989 series Nightingales, where she played Yolanda Elena Puente and was credited as Roxann Biggs. Nightingales was a medical drama aired on NBC and an Aaron Spelling production. The series lasted a single season.

She would follow that up with appearances on multiple television series, usually as a single-episode appearances.

However, she landed seven episodes of the soap opera series The Round Table in 1992. She played the character of Jennifer Clemente, and the show had some similarities to the 1985 film St. Elmo’s Fire.

Star Trek: Voyager

Roxann Dawson’s most significant television role as an actress would come when she joined the cast of Star Trek: Voyager in 1995. She remained with the show until its cancellation in 2001 and appeared in 170 episodes.

She would play the half-Klingon engineer B’Elanna Torres. B’Elanna would become a famous character in the series, which helped shape new ideas about the long-standing Klingon characters, and is one of the most significant characters introduced to the franchise since Mr. Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This would only be the start of her career with the Star Trek franchise. She would move on to roles behind the camera as well.

Pregnancy during Star Trek: Voyager

During season 4 of Voyager, Roxann became pregnant with her first child. The show’s producer decided not to write it into the show and opted to hide her pregnancy by changing to the open jacket uniform and having her appear behind tables and desks in many scenes.

Gates McFadden and Nana Visitor are two other Star Trek alum who were pregnant during their stint on their Star Trek shows. Gates McFadden hid her pregnancy, while Nana’s pregnancy was written into the show.

In Retrospect

Roxann revealed that her two favorite episodes of Voyager are ‘Remember‘ and ‘Lineage‘. She mentions that both episodes were written extraordinarily well and had something important to say.

When asked about her work on Star Trek, Roxann says she is incredibly grateful for the experience. She says it allowed her to do what she loved and has opened many doors for her in acting and directing other projecets.

What is Roxann Dawson doing now?

Directing

Roxann Dawson has retired from acting since 2011. Her last on-screen role was in the television drama The Closer in an episode titled “A Family Affair.” However, since 1999 she has worked as a director and producer and still works in this capacity.

Her first directing role was in a 199 episode of Star Trek Voyager titled “Riddles.” She would direct a second episode in 2001. She would fill in on multiple series, such as Charmed in 2003, Lost in 2006, and The O.C. in 2006.

She would direct ten episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise from 2001 to 2004. Other substantial directing duties include 12 Crossing Jordan episodes and eight Cold Case episodes.

Other series she has worked on as a director include Heroes, Caprica, The Mentalist, Scandal, Treme, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and The Chi. Some of her more recent directorial work consists of The Americans, The Morning Show, This Is Us, Foundation, and the upcoming The Horror of Dolores Roach.

Producing

Her producing duties have included shows such as Scandal, Crossing Jordan, and Cold Case. She also is a writer, having co-written three science fiction novels with Daniel Graham.

Conventions

On occasion you can find Roxann at a Star Trek convention. She has appeared in conventions in 2017, 2019, 2021 and has one scheduled for Sept 23, 2022 at the Destination Star Trek convention in Germany.

Relationships/Marriage

Roxann Dawson has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Casey Biggs from 1985 to 1987. They have then since divorced.

Casey Biggs is an actor who has been active since 1978 and has over 80 film and television credits. He is best known for being another Star Trek character, Damar, from the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; by the time he or Roxann Dawson were cast in their respective projects, the two had already been divorced since the late 1980s.

(Eric Dawson and Emma Rose Dawson)

Her second marriage was to casting director Eric Dawson, who she met while working on Nightingales. The pair would wed in May of 1994 and have been together since.

He is the father of both of her children, though biologically the eldest daughter’s father. Eric Dawson is a prominent casting director affiliated with notable projects in film and television, such as American Horror Story, The Rookie, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and more.

Children

Roxann Dawson has two children. Her daughter Emma Rose Dawson was born during the production of Star Trek: Voyager in 1998, necessitating costuming using a lab coat to hide her pregnancy on the show.

Her second daughter, Mia Meicai Dawson, was adopted from China in July 2000.

Religion

Although she grew up in an agnostic and atheist household, where religion and faith were not encouraged, Roxann always felt in her heart that there was a God.

It wasn’t until she married her second husband, Eric Dawson, that she got serious about religion. She joined the Catholic church, where she felt ‘at home’ and also describes feeling touched ’emotionally’ and ‘logically’.

Roxann mentions in an interview that Hollywood is very secular and talking about religion is a hush-hush affair and is mostly spoken in whispers. She wishes that the tolerance afforded to other groups, would be given to religious people as well in Hollywood.

In 2020 Roxann made her feature film directorial debut with the movie ‘Breakthrough‘, a faith-based film, which is based on a true story about a boy who drowns in a lake and is healed through the power of faith, prayer and love.

The movie was critically acclaimed and earned over $50 million at the global box office.