Terry Farrell (actress)

Terry Farrell
Farrell at the Chiller Theatre Expo, 2013
Born	Theresa Lee Farrell (1963-11-19) November 19, 1963 (age 53) Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S.
Residence	Hershey, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1983–2003, 2015–present
Spouse(s)	Brian Baker (m. 2002; div. 2015)
Children	1

Theresa Lee "Terry" Farrell (born November 19, 1963) is an American actress and fashion model. She is best known for her role as Jadzia Dax in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and later in the comedy series Becker as Regina Kostas.

Farrell was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the daughter of Kay Carol Christine (Bendickson) and Edwin Francis Farrell, Jr. Later, her mother married David W. Grussendorf, who adopted Terry and her sister, Christine. In her junior year of high school, the nearly six feet tall Farrell submitted her image to the Elite modeling agency in New York City. Shortly after, at the age of 16, she was invited to New York City and within two days of arriving, had an exclusive contract with Mademoiselle.

After 18 months of modeling, she studied acting with Kate McGregor Stewart while still modeling on the side. Her first major roles were in the short-lived 1984 television series Paper Dolls, playing a model, and in the feature film Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield. In the spring of 1989, she began studying acting with Stella Adler and appeared in a number of guest-starring roles in series like Quantum Leap and The Cosby Show. In 1992, she played Cat in a second pilot for a U.S. version of Red Dwarf, which was not picked up.

Soon after the Red Dwarf USA project folded, she was offered a lead role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Farrell starred as Jadzia Dax, the space station's Starfleet science officer, a character from an alien species known as the Trill, who is host to a 300-year-old symbiont and can draw upon the memories and knowledge of the symbiont's seven previous hosts. The series debuted in January 1993. When she decided to leave the show at the end of the sixth season, Paramount killed Farrell's "host" character (though continuing the "symbiont" character in a new Dax host, played by Nicole DeBoer).