Michelle Forbes

Michelle Forbes

While she has appeared in a handful of feature films, Michelle Forbes is best known for her TV work in the 1990s. Born in Austin, TX, Forbes moved to New York when she joined the cast of daytime serial The Guiding Light in 1987. Moving to prime time after 1989, Forbes endeared herself to legions of Trekkies as Ensign Ro on Star Trek: The New Generation during the 1991-1992 season. Leaving the show to pursue feature films, the actress appeared in the Irish romance The Playboys (1992), co-starred with David Duchovny as the unwitting companions of Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis' homicidal couple in Kalifornia (1992), and helped send up the Hollywood snakepit in Swimming With Sharks (1994). Following a couple of B-films and a supporting turn in John Carpenter's over-the-top sequel Escape From L.A. (1996), Forbes returned to series TV on the highly praised NBC police drama Homicide: Life on the Street in 1996. Though her character was written out after 1998, Forbes returned for the final TV film Homicide: The Movie (2000). She seemed on track to add another well-regarded series to her resumé in 2000 as one of the doctors on duty in Peter Berg's edgy mental hospital drama Wonderland, but ABC showed little patience for the show's slow start and yanked it off the air after a couple of episodes. After Wonderland's quick disappearance, Forbes played photographer Jared Harris's wife in the fashion world feature Perfume (2001). Despite an illustrious ensemble cast, though, Perfume didn't fare much better than Robert Altman's ignominious haute couture flop Ready to Wear (1994). Finding better work in TV, Forbes appeared in the cable western The Johnson County War (2002) and joined the cast of Fox's much lauded real time CIA drama 24 in 2002, playing a tough, loyal aide to Dennis Haysbert's President Palmer. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide