AND THE BOSS IN BOSTON PUBLIC on Fox The actress who gained worldwide stardom as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager was born Jeri Lynn Zimmermann on February 22, 1968. The daughter of Americans living in Munich, Germany, Jeri moved to the US while still a child. She lived in Kansas, Maryland, Hawaii, Georgia and Texas by age 11. Her family eventually settled in Kentucky, where they stayed after her father retired from the army. 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. While a junior in college, Jeri 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. After graduation, Jeri embarked on a career as an actress, winning roles on numerous television movies and series including "Melrose Place," "The Flash," "Time Trax" and "Matlock." 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." Her character's name is Seven of Nine, which is short for Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One, "or something like that," says Jeri. "We've streamlined it to Seven, which isn't so bad." Voyager executive producer Rick Berman describes Seven as "a sensual creature neither fully Borg nor fully human," and the role required particular costume and make-up requirements, especially in the first episodes. To help Jeri achieve Borg perfection, the makeup department made a plaster cast of her face, a 45-minute process that involved breathing through two straws pushed up into her nose. That was followed by a two-hour cast of her entire body. "You have to suffer for art," she quips. "For the first costume, if I would do anything other than have my head straight ahead, it cut off my carotid artery. It was so tight that I blacked out four times." This suit, used to transform Jeri into a full Borg, forced her to lie down between scenes to regain her composure, but she didn't complain. "That was my nice Midwestern girl upbringing," she says. "They would bring nurses to the set with oxygen, and I wouldn't say anything. But after the fourth time blacking out, I spoke up." The producers quickly refitted the suit. The next costume, the infamous silver catsuit, had problems of its own. "Forget vanity, throw vanity to the wind! And you can forget anything about privacy, because it ain't gonna happen. Anytime I have to go to the bathroom, everybody has to know about it. It's announced over the P.A. system, because production stops for a half-hour. 'We can't roll a shot. Jeri's not here.' 'Why not, where's Jeri?' 'Jeri has to go 10-100.' It's just a whole procedure." A third costume, this one brown, premiered in "The Raven." That incarnation of the catsuit stayed untill the fifth season, when it was replaced by the a blue and gray version and eventually a plum version. But despite the costume changes, Jeri has no problem with being sold as the sex symbol of Voyager. "There are worse things you could be called than 'whiplash-inducing,'" she says, referring to an early TV Guide article. "But as long as the character is intelligently written and gets challenging stories for me to play, I'm fine with it . . . as long as I can breathe." Fans will note that before Voyager, Jeri had been billed as "Jeri Lynn Ryan." A new manager hired before her Voyager job convinced her to drop the "Lynn" from her stage name. "He didn't think it would sound like a name that would grow with me," Jeri says. "He didn't see me at 44 years old as Jeri Lynn. Personally, I miss the Lynn. I've been Jeri Lynn all my life, and my family always calls me Lynn, which causes confusion around the set." 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." Production began this summer in New Orleans. The movie is set to be released on December 22, 2000. Although an accomplished actress, Jeri considers her greatest role to be that of mother to Alex. "As a mom, I'm more patient and feel more complete," she says. "Nobody could have convinced me while I was pregnant of how magical it would be to be a mother." In her spare time, she enjoys snow skiing as well as cooking and baking, "I make some mean pies!" she states proudly. For frequently asked questions about Jeri Lynn Ryan, please visit the site's FAQ. Quotes taken from interviews conducted by Jeanne Wolf (TVGEN), Jefferson Graham (USA TODAY), Kate O'Hare (Tribute Media Services from The Chicago Tribune TVWeek Interactive), Ian Spelling (The New York Times Syndicate), Knight-Ridder News Service.

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