Marina Sirtis (born 29 March 1955) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four Star Trek feature films, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise. Marina Sirtis was born in Hackney, London, the daughter of Greek parents, Despina, a tailor's assistant, and John Sirtis.  She was brought up in Harringay, North London. When she was three years old, Sirtis says, the teenage sons of her babysitter sexually molested her. Sirtis suffered from an eating disorder, which emerged due to the trauma of the assault. After suffering from the disorder for 20 years, she went into therapy in the 1990s and was able to manage the trauma and learn to eat healthily again. While still in secondary school, Sirtis secretly auditioned for drama school against her parents' wishes, ultimately being accepted to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1976, at the age of 21, Sirtis graduated from Guildhall and began her career by joining the Connaught Theatre. In 1986, Sirtis immigrated to the United States, settling in Los Angeles to boost her career. She later became a naturalized US citizen. Sirtis started her career as a member of the repertory company at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, West Sussex, in 1976. Directed by Nic Young, she appeared in Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw and as Ophelia in Hamlet. Before her role in Star Trek, Sirtis was featured in supporting roles in several films. In the 1983, Faye Dunaway film, The Wicked Lady, she engaged in a whip fight with Dunaway. In the Charles Bronson sequel Death Wish 3, Sirtis' character is a rape victim. In the film Blind Date, she appears as a sex worker who is murdered by a madman. Other early works include numerous guest-starring roles on British television series. Sirtis appeared in Raffles (1977), Who Pays the Ferryman (1977), Hazell (1978), Minder (1979), the Jim Davidson sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle (1985), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986). She also played the flight attendant in a 1979 Cinzano Bianco television commercial starring Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins, in which Collins was splattered with drink.