Terry Farrell may have only had six seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to make an impact, but she used those six seasons in the best ways possible, even being called an “Action Barbie” by The Next Generation star LeVar Burton. The actress made quick waves with her tall, lithe figure and badass attitude, so why has she disappeared from screens?
The actress was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in November of 1963, leading a relatively quiet life through her teens before beginning work as a fashion model at the age of sixteen. The six-foot-tall Farrell would make an immediate place, her height leading her to even more modeling gigs with Vogue and Mademoiselle in only the first eighteen months of her new career.
Modeling Success
Those eighteen months would prove to just be a stepping stone, with the actress quickly stepping into acting after a period of study in New York City during her modeling gigs.
She would quickly move into acting with a role close to her own life in the one-season run of Paper Dolls where she would play a model. While the role wouldn’t last long, it would open the door to other opportunities including a guest spot on The Cosby Show and bit parts in television movies through the next couple of years before landing a double whammy of great roles.
Terry Farrell made her supporting feature film debut with Rodney Dangerfield’s classic Back to School in 1986 alongside the legendary comedian and other greats like Robert Downey Jr. and prophetic author Kurt Vonnegut. The film would be a hit and she would follow in the same year with an episode of the eighties Twilight Zone revival, Terry would play the lead in the segment After Hours, her first starring role as a lead.
Farrell would go on to spend the next decade slowly but steadily building her brand through triumphs and failures.
She would find herself in various film and television projects, including the horror sequel Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992) and on episodes of The Twilight Zone (1986) and Family Ties (1986).
Terry would pull guest roles in Quantum Leap while also attempting to take a second United States revival of British classic Red Dwarf, to about the same audience reaction as the first attempt. The pilot was scrapped quickly, leaving Terry Farrell to find another series to settle in on, which wouldn’t take too long.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The death of Red Dwarf led to an offer for the actress/model to join the newest entry in the Star Trek saga, Deep Space Nine. Depicting a member of new species the Trill, her character of Jadzia Dax would become a mainstay of the first six seasons of the show as the science officer for the Deep Space Nine station, with the series switching focus from a Starfleet ship to a station outpost in the far corner of a galaxy.
Many fans of Deep Space Nine consider Jadzia Dax to have been an underutilized character due to her ability to explore themes of gender fluidity, bisexuality, and non-binary gender identity.
In addition, she also represented ideas of multiple personalities within a single character and was a trailblazing figure at the time.
Jadzia Dax served as the station’s chief science officer and was close friends with commander Benjamin Sisko.
Jadzia Dax would eventually marry the Klingon character Worf during the show’s sixth season, but in the season finale, Jadzia died.
Terry Farrell left the show, and a new Trill symbiote was introduced in season seven with Ezri Dax, played by Nicole de Boer.
Jadzia Dax proved to be a popular character with fans of the show but a challenging one for the writers to characterize because of the multiple personalities inherent in the Trill species. By season two, however, the writers had a lock on the character.
All seemed to be going well until the sixth season of the show. Farrell was offered a chance to join the sitcom, Becker.
She passed on renewing her contract and joined Becker for four years as Reggie Costas.
Terry revealed she had conflicts with Star Trek producer Rick Berman and attempted to stay on the show with fewer appearances, but he refused.
Farrell would be just one of the core components that kept the show going before leaving at the end of the sixth season, Jadzia dying grandly as the actress moved into another role on Becker, the anti-Frasier sitcom starring Cheers icon Ted Danson in 1998. Terry Farrell would play Reggi Kostas for four seasons of the comedy, also splitting time between television movies like Crossing the Line and cult parody Tripping the Rift, playing on Star Trek tropes with terrible animation. While the series would go on to cult fame, Farrell would only provide her voice briefly before retiring in 2002.
What is Terry Farrell Doing Now?
While Terry Farrell hasn’t picked up any roles since a brief indie appearance alongside other Trek actors in 2019’s The Circuit, she has said she would love to return to acting, especially if Star Trek is involved.
These days, with her son grown and plenty of time to devote to other avenues, she could very well make an appearance in a new Trek offering, depending on what happens with the series’ future plans after the end of Picard and Discovery. While her character was killed off, there is the possibility of her still returning through her character’s race of symbiont hiveminds.
Outside of those acting jobs, she also appears on the convention circuit to connect with fans of her work and the more extensive franchises she has been attached to. She also has an account on Cameo to record videos for fans at reasonable rates.
The actress married fellow actor Brian Baker, mostly known as a spokesman for Sprint in the 90s and early 2000s, in 2002. The two would welcome a son not long after, with the actress retiring from the business to focus on her family. Though her time in retirement was peaceful, she and Baker would eventually divorce in 2015. The actress would meet Adam Nimoy, son of Spock-actor Leanord Nimoy, not long after.
Farrell and Nimoy would marry in 2018, though the marriage would only last until 2022 when the two would amicably divorce. Farrell also made a semi-return to acting around the same time, taking up a role in the attempted Star Trek fan series Renegades, though it would end up being divorced from the Star Trek name before long and spin into its own brief web series, it would unite quite a few Trek actors into one show.
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