Nana Visitor

The Weight of the Family Name

Nana Visitor didn't choose the stage. The stage chose her in 1957. She was born into a family where dancing was the everyday currency of home life. Her father choreographed on Broadway, and her aunt was the legendary Cyd Charisse.

She grew up surrounded by rehearsals and sheet music in New York. So it came as no surprise to anyone that by 70 she was already on stage in productions like My One and Only. But musical theater was only the beginning of a more ambitious plan.

She moved to Los Angeles with the intention of working.

During the 80s, she landed supporting roles in shows that today we only remember for their theme songs. She appeared in Knight Rider and MacGyver. They were paycheck jobs that covered the rent while she waited for a more substantial opportunity.

A uniform that was too rigid

The casting for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1992 radically changed her career. The producers were looking for someone who could embody the anger of a soldier worn down by war. Visitor showed up with an energy that unsettled the network executives.

She played Kira Nerys for seven consecutive seasons. **At first, she was paid less than her male co-stars**, but her character ended up being the moral backbone of the space station. And audiences noticed.

In 1996, she became pregnant, and the production had to invent a storyline to explain her condition on screen. It was a technical fix for a logistical problem that ended up bringing the characters on the show closer together.

And audiences noticed.

But typecasting is a hard monster to escape in science fiction. When the series ended in 1999, she had to fight to get casting directors to see the woman behind the rugged nose prosthetic. It was not an easy transition.

Life after the space station

In 2001, she divorced Alexander Siddig after four years of marriage. They kept working together at conventions and events, since the series' brand was too strong to ignore. But she wanted to explore other kinds of roles.

She appeared in Dark Angel and voiced several episodes of Family Guy. In 2005, she accepted a role on the series Wildfire, where she played Jean Ritter. It was a different setting (horses and family drama) that let her step away from spaceships for a while.

In 2009, she took a small part in the remake of Friday the 13th. It was a purely professional decision to stay active in an industry that tends to forget actresses once they pass fifty.

She isn't looking for easy nostalgia.

In 2024, she published the book A Woman’s Trek. It is an in-depth look at women in science fiction and her own experience on '90s film sets. The text steers clear of behind-the-scenes gossip to focus on the evolving role of women on screen.

In 2022, she reprised her role as Kira Nerys for the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. Her voice recordings were made in a New York studio using a **Neumann U87** microphone.