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Annie Wersching, star of 'Timeless' & 'Star Trek: Picard,' dies at 45 after battle with cancer
Star Trek roles bookended a TV career that included Bosch, 24, The Vampire Diaries, and Marvel's Runaways.
Annie Wersching, the actor who portrayed the Borg Queen in Star Trek: Picard and had numerous memorable roles in a wide range of popular shows including NBC’s sci-fi series Timeless, has passed away following a lengthy fight with cancer. She was 45.
Wersching died Sunday following an extended cancer ordeal first diagnosed in 2020, reports Deadline. She had continued to work while dealing with the illness, filming recent and ongoing parts in Season 2 of Picard as well as Season 5 of ABC crime dramedy The Rookie. Her Picard role as the Borg Queen leader of the Borg Collective’s hive mind bookended a 20-year career that first began with Star Trek: Enterprise in 2002, when Wesrching played the unrelated role of Liana in the Season 1 Enterprise episode “Oasis.”
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Best known for her Picard and Timeless roles as well as major parts on Bosch and 24, Wersching also acted in a long and varied list of TV series, including The Vampire Diaries (as Lily Salvatore), Marvel’s Runaways (as Leslie Dean), Extant (as Femi Dodd), and in a recurring stint on General Hospital. She also voiced Tess in the original PlayStation survival horror game The Last of Us. In the Eric Kripe-created Timeless, Wersching played Emma Whitmore, the original pilot of the time machine that stood at the center of a sinister corporate espionage scheme whose goal was to rewrite history.
In a statement on the official Star Trek website, Picard executive producer Akiva Goldsman expressed the Star Trek community’s regrets at the sad news. “Annie was a gift to us all, and an utter joy to work with,” said Goldsman. “Her entire Star Trek family is heartbroken. Our deepest condolences go out to her family.”
Wersching’s husband, actor Stephen Full, also commemorated her life in a statement to Deadline: “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. ‘Go find it. It’s everywhere.’ And find it we shall.”
Born in St. Louis, Wersching got her on-screen start on Star Trek: Enterprise before embarking on a television acting career that included a steady string of episodic guest appearances in a wide range of early-2000s TV series. Many of her early roles came in contemporary genre shows including Angel, Charmed, and Supernatural. Her 2007 casting in General Hospital marked her first major recurring role, followed in 2009 by her joining the main cast of 24 as FBI agent Renee Walker through Seasons 7 and 8.
If you're looking to pay tribute to Annie Wersching by watching some of her work, all eight seasons of The Vampire Diaries are now streaming on Peacock.
