Michelle Forbes

Michelle Forbes
Michelle Forbes at True Blood premiere party
Born	Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1987 - present
Spouse	Ross Kettle (1990-?) (divorced

Michelle Renee Forbes Guajardo (born January 8, 1965) is an American actress who has built a career of work in television and independent film and has acted in productions in both the United States and in the United Kingdom. Forbes first gained attention from her dual role in daytime soap opera Guiding Light, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination.

Although she has appeared in significant roles in movies such as Escape From LA, Kalifornia and Swimming with Sharks, Forbes is perhaps best known for her recurring appearances on genre and drama shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Homicide: Life on the Street during the nineties, while building her career with roles throughout the 2000s in Battlestar Galactica, 24 , In Treatment and True Blood.

Life and career

Born in Austin, Texas, Forbes – originally hoping to become a ballet dancer – began receiving formal acting training at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. While on vacation in New York City at the age of 16, she found herself auditioning for a film; although it did not pan out, she nevertheless signed with the William Morris Agency and began her professional acting career. In 1987, at the age of 22, she landed the dual roles of Solita Carrera and Sonni Carrera Lewis on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light. She remained with the show for two years, receiving a Daytime Emmy Award nomimation for her performance in 1990.

After this role, she continued in theater, which was an early love of hers, and began appearing in small guest roles on television to raise her profile. She went on to make guest appearances on a few other TV shows (including Star Trek: The Next Generation and Father Dowling Mysteries) before landing the recurring role of Ro Laren on The Next Generation. Her portrayal of disgraced Bajoran Starfleet officer Ensign Ro won her many fans among the genre community, and her character quickly became a favorite despite appearing in just eight episodes.

Rather than reprise the role of Ro for spin-off Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Forbes declined the offer for a primary role in that series and decided to focus on a career in films. She received praise, as well as a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, for her performance as the photographer Carrie Laughlin in the 1993 thriller Kalifornia. This was followed with the lead female role in the acclaimed 1994 black comedy Swimming with Sharks, as well as supporting roles in such films as The Road Killers, Just Looking and John Carpenter's 1996 science fiction/action sequel Escape from L.A. She did continue making occasional appearances on television during this period, with guest spots on Seinfeld, The Outer Limits, as well as returning to Star Trek: The Next Generation to tie up the Ro Laren storyline in the series' penultimate episode.

In 1996, Forbes joined the cast of NBC's popular police drama Homicide: Life on the Street, playing chief medical examiner Julianna Cox. She remained with the show for two years, then was let go as part of a major cast overhaul (the series would be canceled after one more season). However, she would reprise the role in the 2000 TV special Homicide: The Movie. That same year, Forbes became a regular on an ABC series called Wonderland, but this show was pulled from the air after only two episodes. Forbes was next seen in a recurring role on police drama The District.

She was subsequently given roles in films such as 2001's Perfume and 2002's American Girl, as well as the 2001 British TV movie Messiah (for which she studied British sign language for a week) and its sequel installments: Messiah 2: Vengeance is Mine in 2002 and Messiah III in 2003. During the 2002-2003 TV season, Forbes played the recurring character of Lynne Kresge, the aide to the President of the United States, on the second season of the critically-acclaimed 24. Actor Dennis Haysbert, who played President Palmer, reportedly was a big Star Trek fan and excited to work with her given her history with the show. She followed her role on 24 with a guest spot on Alias, then went on to play Admiral Helena Cain in three episodes of the re-imagining of the classic sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica, as well as starring in the TV movie Battlestar Galactica: Razor. She followed this up with a recurring role as Agent Samantha Brinker on the drama Prison Break and guest starred on Boston Legal and Lost.

Forbes starred as the lead in comic-book adaption Global Frequency, the single produced episode of which infamously leaked online the following year, eight months after the series failed to be picked up by Warner Bros networks. This was the first instance of an unaired pilot episode leaking via P2P and BitTorrent clients.

Forbes returned to British television screens with guest roles in both Holby City and as a Mossad agent in Waking The Dead. In 2008, Forbes starred in two HBO drama series; In Treatment, portraying the wife of the central character, and in True Blood as a Maenad named Maryann. She reprised her semi-regular roles in both series in their respective second seasons in 2009, as well as joining the cast of the Canadian psychological drama series Durham County for its second season as Dr. Penelope Verity.

Credits and appearances

Cinema

Year	Title	Role	Notes (All works are U.S. productions unless stated)
1993	Love Bites: The Reluctant Vampire	Nerissa
	Kalifornia	Carrie Laughlin	Nomination for a Saturn Award for Best Actress
1994	Swimming with Sharks	Dawn Lockhard
	Roadflower	Helen
1995	Just Looking	Mary
	The Chosen One	The Mother
	Black Day Blue Night	Rinda Woolley
1996	Escape From LA	Brazen
1998	Dry Martini	Valeria
2000	Bullfighter	Mary
2001	Perfume	Francene
2002	Confessions of an American Girl	Madge Grubb
2004	Dandelion	Ms. Voss
	Al Roach: Private Investigator	Dede Dragonfly	Voice-over, animated feature
2009	Diplomacy	U.S. Secretary of State
2010	Highland Park	Sylvia

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes (All works are U.S. productions unless stated)
1987-89	Guiding Light	Dr. Sonni Carrera-Lewis	Multiple episodes
1991	Father Dowling Mysteries	Gym Instructor	1 episode
	Shannon's Deal		1 episode
	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Dara	1 episode
1991-94		Ensign / Lt. Ro Laren	8 episodes
1994	Seinfeld	Julie	1 episode
1996	The Outer Limits	Jamie Pratt	1 episode
	The Prosecutors	Dist. Atty. Rachel Simone	TV movie
1996-98	Homicide: Life on the Street	Dr. Julianna Cox	32 episodes
1998	Brimstone	Assistant D.A. Julia Trent	1 episode
2000	Homicide: The Movie	Dr. Julianna Cox	TV movie
	The District	Helen York	7 episodes
	Wonderland	Dr. Lyla Garrity	8 episodes (cancelled by ABC after 2 shows, remaining episodes broadcast by DirecTV in 2008)
2001-04	Messiah	Susan Metcalfe	3 serial stories shown in multiple parts (UK production)
2002	Johnson County War	Rory Hammett	TV movie
	Strong Medicine	Assistant District Attorney Jill Sorenson	2 episodes
	Fastlane	Lena	1 episode
2002-03	24	Lynne Kresge	18 episodes
2004	Love is the Drug	Reena	3 episodes (Irish production)
	Global Frequency	Miranda Zero	1 unaired pilot, leaked online in 2005
2005	Alias	Dr. Maggie Sinclair	1 episode
	The Inside	Zoya Petikof	1 episode
2005-06	Battlestar Galactica	Admiral Helena Cain	3 episodes
	Prison Break	Samantha Brinker	7 episodes
2006	Holby City	Rhetta Slattery	1 episode (UK production)
	Boston Legal	Juliette Monroe	1 episode
2007	Unthinkable	Jamie McDowell	TV movie
	Battlestar Galactica: Razor	Admiral Helena Cain	TV movie
2007-08	Waking the Dead	Sarah	3 episodes (UK production)
2008	Lost	Karen Decker	1 episode
2008-09	In Treatment	Kate	15 episodes (to date)
	True Blood	Maryann Forrester	15 episodes
2009	Durham County	Dr. Pen Verrity	6 episodes (to date) (Canadian production)

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Half-Life 2	Dr. Judith Mossman	Voice-over
2006	Half-Life 2: Episode One
2007	Half-Life 2: Episode Two
2009	The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena	Captain Gail Revas	Voice-over

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Production	Result
1990	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Guiding Light	Nominated
	Soap Opera Digest Award	Outstanding Daytime Villainess		Nominated
1993	Saturn Award	Best Actress	Kalifornia	Nominated
2003	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	24	Nominated (shared with co-stars of 24)
2010	Saturn Award	Best Guest Starring Role in Television	True Blood	Nominated

External links

• Michelle Forbes at TV Guide
• Template:Tv.com person
• Michelle Forbes at Yahoo! Movies
• Michelle Forbes at Memory Alpha