Tania Lemani
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
(written from a Production point of view)
Tania Lemani (sometimes credited as Tanya Lemani or Tanya Lemani George) played Kara in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Wolf in the Fold".
Tania was born in Iran to Russian parents. When she was 12 years old, her family came to America where Lemani began her career with a classical ballet dance troop, but when she traveled to Las Vegas in search of more work, she was offered a job as a belly dancer, not a ballet dancer. She ultimately got her own show in Vegas, as well as offers to dance on television and film. She also began receiving more serious acting roles after a member of her show's audience offered her a role in the pilot for Alexander the Great, starring William Shatner in the title role (although the pilot failed to be picked up as a series). Regardless, Lemani retired from acting in 1969.
One of her earliest film appearances came in the 1964 comedy A Global Affair, which also featured Nehemiah Persoff and fellow TOS guest actress Barbara Bouchet. She went on to appear in such films as Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (in which she, Sabrina Scharf, Vic Tayback, and George D. Wallace appear unbilled) and Gambit (with Roger C. Carmel, Arnold Moss, and Vic Tayback) in 1966. She also had a supporting role in Joseph Sargent's 1968 drama To Hell with Heroes, along with William Marshall and Sid Haig. In total, she had roles in nearly twenty films.
On television, she has appeared on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, McHale's Navy (including an episode with David Opatoshu), It Takes a Thief (with Nancy Kovack), and The Flying Nun (with Michael Pataki, among others. In addition, she has performed in dozens of stage productions.
Tania Lemani speaks English, Russian and Persian fluently. She also knows some Spanish, Armenian, Ukrainian & Italian. She has also produced her own belly dancing video, "Bellysize with Tanya."
[edit] External links
- TanyaLemani.com - official site
- Tania Lemani at the Internet Movie Database
