Tell us how you came to join the Deep Space Nine cast.

Deep Space Nine was the one show that I prayed to be on, because I had one friend who was already on the show, on The Next Generation. That was Jonathan Del Arco who played Hugh the Borg.

Jonathan and I were in the same acting class before I was on the show. It's funny, in a city of twelve million people, I was in an acting class with ten people. Three of those people were Jonathan from Next Gen, Garret [Wang] from Voyager, and me. Isn't that wild?

Jonathan would always come to class on Monday nights and tell us about what he was getting to do on the show, and the conventions that he had gone to over the weekend. I thought, "How great is that? To be on such a wonderful quality show, and to get to go to meet the fans that make it possible. Travelling all over the world. That's what I want to do."

I also knew that Star Trek was timeless, and that it would be a fabulous thing to do for my career, so I arranged to meet the casting director, Ron Surma, at a pay-to-meet showcase. Actors can pay thirty dollars to meet a casting director. You do a little theme for them for five minutes, and if they like you, then you're in.

He called me in for a role, actually for the role of Mardah who was Jake's girlfriend in the second season. She was also a Bajoran Dabo girl, but I didn't get that. Actually, when I was shooting the third episode as Leeta, Ira Behr [writer] told me that they wrote the role of Leeta for me. So, I got a call to be Leeta, and that was it. A huge blessing.