By: Dell Dumont

Graphics Editor

On Jan. 29, 45-year-old actress Annie Wersching, best known for her roles in television series including Star Trek: Picard, 24, and Timeless, lost her battle with cancer after being diagnosed in 2020. Due to Wersching’s private nature, her team has yet to confirm or reveal the type of cancer.

The actress was born on March 28, 1977, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. As her parents, Sandy and Frank Wersching, were involved in the local arts community, it comes as no surprise that she was an Irish dancer for the St. Louis Celtic Step Dancers as a child. 

In 1995, Wersching graduated from Crossroads College Preparatory School and later received a BFA in musical theater from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, in 1999. She began her career in 2002 with an appearance in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, playing Liana.

Following her role on Enterprise, Wersching went on to portray the Borg Queen in the second season of Star Trek: Picard. In an interview with Paramount on the show The Ready Room, the actress declared that playing the Borg Queen was “certainly a little intimidating.” 

Wersching also provided the motion capture and voice for the game character Tess Servopoulos in the Naughty Dog Studios’ 2013 action-adventure game, The Last of Us. Soon after the announcement of her death, members of The Last of Us cast and development team spoke through Twitter to express the loss of their beloved friend. “You left us way too soon,” stated games creator Neil Druckmann in a tweet, confirming the news. Troy Baker, the voice and performance-capture of The Last of Us character Joel Miller, tweeted soon after her passing, “Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you are grateful for the simple gift of knowing them. Annie, so much of Tess is what you imbued into the character. Your strength is her strength and in some way, you live on in not only her but the many roles you brought to life.”

Throughout her career, Wersching portrayed a variety of characters, namely those in positions of authority such as a police officer in the series Bosch and FBI special agent Renee Walker in season 7 of 24. Kiefer Sutherland, star actor in 24, described her as “a beautiful person,” and stated “my heart breaks” for her family. Wersching also portrayed characters including Emma Whitmore, an engineer in the series Timeless, Lily Salvatore in the Vampire Diaries, and serial killer Rosalind Dyer in the ABC crime series Rookie. Alexi Hawley, showrunner for The Rookie, shared a fundraising page for the actress’s family, which read: “Such sad news. Annie was part of The Rookie family. A special person and true talent who brought joy to our set and elevated every scene she was in.”

Stephen Full, Wersching’s husband, shared in a statement,“There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today. But she left us the tools to fill it. She found wonder in the simplest moment. She didn’t require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you.”

(Sources: BBC, NPR, NY Times, Twitter)