Who did Jill Jacobson play on Star Trek? Characters explored as TV star dies aged 70

Actress Jill Jacobson, who portrayed Vanessa and Chalan Aroya in the Star Trek franchise, passed away on December 8, 2024, at the age of 70. Jacobson also gained recognition for her performances in other projects, such as Quantum Leap and After the Storm.

The news of Jacobson's demise was first revealed by her friend and publicist, Daniel Harary. Speaking to Variety on December 15, Daniel disclosed that Jill died from an illness at the Cedars-Sinai Culver Health Center in Los Angeles.

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Jill Jacobson's manager, Ben Padua, praised her by saying:

"Jill was a total spitfire of an actress with comedic timing straight out of a Marx Brothers' flick and Hollywood glamour right from its golden age. Jill took us on so many adventures and she was an absolute blast."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jill Jacobson enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, where she obtained her B.S. in Radio, TV, and Film Performance. She then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a successful career in film and television.

Throughout her time in the entertainment industry, Jill battled esophageal cancer for almost two and a half years. She was part of the American Cancer Society and volunteered with them on multiple occasions. During a conversation with Jim Masters, she addressed her experience with cancer by saying:

"What I went through was pretty intense. You can't function, you just can't. I'm so grateful now, I just want to keep going, I want to help people. It makes you want to help people."

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Jill Jacobson was an important part of the Star Trek franchise

The Texas native was featured in several successful projects throughout her career, one of which was Star Trek. Notably, she appeared in two separate installments, The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, for a brief period.

Jill Jacobson portrayed Vanessa in an episode titled The Royale from the second season of The Next Generation. The character was described as a married and attractive woman in Todd Matthews' book Hotel Royale and was a casino gambler.

An unknown alien presence created her physical representation for human astronaut Colonel Stephen Richey when he was on Theta VIII in 2044. This occurred after his ship, Charybdis, crashed there, allowing an alien to replicate Vanessa. A team from the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D then entered a hotel in 2365 where everything from the novel was happening in reality.

Data approached a blackjack table, and Vanessa whistled when she was impressed with the android's card shuffling. Data even achieved blackjack after Texas advised him against taking additional cards, prompting Vanessa to follow Data as he explained his reasoning for taking another card, to which she agreed.

Jill Jacobson was later seen as Chalan Aroya, the owner of the Celestial Café, in an episode from the fourth season of Deep Space Nine. In 2372, she visited Garak's Clothiers to get a new dress. Elim Garak immediately called a security officer to the shop, aiming to set up Chalan with Odo.

The Founders later changed Odo into a humanoid, and Chalan came to visit Odo. Aroya apologized to Odo for everything that had happened and mentioned that there are certain advantages to being humanoid.