Nana Visitor - Career

Career

Visitor began her acting career in the 1970s on the Broadway stage in such productions as My One and Only. Her film debut (billed as Nana Tucker) came in the 1977 horror film The Sentinel. On television, Visitor co-starred in the short-lived 1976 sitcom Ivan the Terrible, and from 1978 to 1982 had short-lived regular roles on three soap operas: Ryan's Hope, The Doctors and One Life to Live.

In 1984, she appeared in Season 2, Episode 3 of Hunter. In 1985, Visitor made an appearance in the television series MacGyver, in the season one episode "Hellfire" as Laura Farren, and in the season two episode "DOA: MacGyver" as Carol Varnay. In 1986, she appeared in "Hills of Fire", a fourth season episode of Knight Rider.

In 1987, Visitor appeared as Ellen Dolan in a failed television pilot for Will Eisner's pulp comic creation The Spirit starring Sam J. Jones as the title character and Garry Walberg as her father, Commissioner Dolan.

In 1988, she made a guest appearance on the sitcom Night Court as a mental patient who is obsessed with the movies. That same year, she made a guest appearance on the television series In the Heat of the Night as the owner of the Sparta newspaper. In 1989, Visitor appeared as a guest on the fifth episode of the television series Doogie Howser, M.D. as Charmagne, a rock star who has a throat nodule removed at Doogie's hospital, and as Miles Drentell's glamorous girlfriend, in "Success", a 1989 episode of Thirtysomething's second season.

In 1990, Visitor co-starred with Sandra Bullock in the short-lived sitcom Working Girl, which was based on the feature film of the same name.

From 1993–1999, Visitor appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Major (later Colonel, and eventually, Commander) Kira Nerys, a former freedom fighter/terrorist for the planet Bajor, who worked to drive off the alien occupiers, the Cardassians, from her homeworld, now forced to work with the Starfleet contingent brought in by her government to administrate the titular space station built in orbit around her planet during the occupation.

After DS9 ended, Visitor had a recurring role as villain Dr. Elizabeth Renfro on the television series Dark Angel and starred as Roxie Hart in the touring and Broadway companies of the musical Chicago. Visitor was then cast as Jean Ritter on the ABC Family series Wildfire, which premiered on June 20, 2005.

In 2008, she appeared as Emily Kowalski, a dying cancer patient in "Faith", an episode of the re-imagined Battlestar Galacticas fourth season. Visitor had a small role as Pamela Voorhees in the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. She has also lent her voice in a few guest appearances on the sitcom Family Guy, such as Rita in the episode "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag" and as the voice of the Enterprise in "Extra Large Medium". In 2011, she had a small part in the Hammer Horror film The Resident playing the realtor. She appeared in Torchwood: Miracle Day episodes 7 ("Immortal Sins") and 8 ("End of the Road"). In 2012, she appeared as Dr. Patty Barker, a canine psychotherapist, in "An Embarrassment of Bitches", a season four episode of ABC's Castle.