Here
is a biography of my favorite actress, Jeri Lynn Ryan:
The
actress who gained worldwide stardom as Seven of Nine on Star Trek:
Voyager was born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann on February 22, 1968. in Munich,
Germany
Jeri graduated from Lone Oak High School in Paducah, KY in 1986, then
attended Northwestern University, where she earned a B.A. in Theater
in 1990. While in college, she won the sixth annual Miss Northwestern
Alpha Delta Phi Pageant in 1989. She also won the talent contest
singing "On My Own" from Les Miserables and co-won the
swimsuit contest. Later, Jeri was Miss Illinois 1990 and competed in
the Miss America pageant, where she won the swimsuit competition and
placed third runner-up. But if you think she's all looks and no brains,
you're wrong; while in school Jeri was also a National Merit Scholar.
Jeri joined the cast of the NBC series Dark Skies midway through its
first and only season, with the episode "The Warren Omission."
Looking back on the show, Jeri notes that she liked the people and the
premise, but felt that NBC had given up on the series by the time she
arrived on the scene. "Dark Skies had a lot of potential,"
she says. "The show was just finding its footing when it got
canceled."
Jeri also found time to film roles in two independent features. Men
Cry Bullets was billed as "a tragic comedy that uses gender
reversal to demonstrate the insidiousness of an abusive relationship."
On the other hand, "The Last Man is about the last three people
on Earth, and I'm the last woman," says Jeri. "I know it
sounds like sci-fi, but it's really not. I hope they get the film
released. It's a small, but very good film."
And then, of course, came Star Trek: Voyager. Jeri joined the cast at
the beginning of its fourth season, with the episode "Scorpion,
Part II."Joining a series in mid-run was something she'd done
before, but the similarities to Dark Skies ended there. "I did a
complete 180," says Jeri. "I was fighting the collective,
the (alien) Hive on Dark Skies. Now I'm part of the collective, the
Borg. It's very funny."
Jeri is currently filming the seventh and final season of Voyager, but
that's not her only acting job at the moment. In Wes Craven Presents:
Dracula 2000, Jeri plays, in the words of The Hollywood Reporter,
"a New Orleans-based journalist searching for the vampire."
Filmed in New Orleans and Toronto, the movie was released on December
22, 2000.
