Get ready for an epic journey with Mary Chieffo, known for her role as L’Rell on Star Trek: Discovery. She can’t wait to join the Un-Conventional Voyage for the fourth time in 2024!
Check out this video message from Mary, and hear all about what she is most looking forward to onboard Star Trek: The Cruise.
Plus, read a Q&A session where Mary tells us more about her love for Star Trek, and shares with us about her new found love for producing.
Q&A Session
What are some of your favorite memories of past Star Trek Cruises?
So many incredible memories! From spontaneously performing “Dammit Janet” with Jason Issacs, hosting some fabulous karaoke nights (did someone say Bohemian Rhapsody?), teaching Klingon Yoga bright and early on the pool deck, the EPIC Klingon raves with Ken and the Kol-lective, teaching Trek-inspired improv with my partner Madi (yes, and…Qapla’!), delicious mixology shenanigans with Dr. Erin…the list goes on and on.
We know you’re an amazing actor, what other talents do you have that we don’t know about?
- Since my time on Discovery, I have been empowered to produce and champion my own projects and tell stories of those who have been marginalized by our society and the entertainment industry specifically. It has been a beautiful experience to not only challenge myself to really investigate the messages I want to send out into the world with my art, but also celebrate the immense amount of voices out there that have yet to heard due to unnecessary obstacles in mainstream media. The creation of art is never easy, but if the right people come together, amazing things can happen!
- Coming out of the pandemic, I co-created and produced an Augmented Reality project alongside Verizon and Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions that centers around my reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s notorious villain Iago as a modern woman. We premiered at Tribeca 2022 where we were a Tribeca X Finalist and won the Webby Award for Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in 2023. You can check out more details about the piece and download the app at greeneyedmonsterar.com!
- Also in 2022, I produced and starred in a queer sci-fi short film written by and co-starring my partner Madi Goff with Star Trek’s very own Science Consultant Dr. Erin Macdonald as our lead producer (check out her LGBTQ+ owned Spacetime Productions!). We received the Women In Media Parity In Action Badge for having more than 50% women and nonbinary crew, and in 2023 won the River Bend Film Fest Spirit of the Fest Award, Indie Short Fest Best Acting Duo, Best Original Score, and Outstanding Achievement LGBTQ+ Short, as well as LA Independent Women Film Awards Best Composer. Fun fact: our beloved Terry Farrell makes a special appearance in the film!
How do you view the impact Star Trek has made on the world?
Star Trek is such a powerful platform that has inspired an incredible amount of truth-telling and confrontation of societal inequities since it’s inception. It thrives off of hope rather than nihilism which I believe to be one of the reasons it has lasted so long as an entity bigger than any one individual who is a part of it. The stories of Trek are those of exploration and expansion of mind and soul. They teach us the potential of true humanity. Although, as a Klingon, I take a little umbrage around the term “human”-ity, but that’s a conversation for another time.
How has your experience on Star Trek influenced you as an individual?
Being a part of the Star Trek legacy has been an inspiration to say the least. Witnessing the impact these stories and characters have made on so many individuals is an amazing thing to behold. The amount of beautiful, powerful, intelligent people I have been lucky enough to meet as a consequence of playing Chancellor L’Rell is more than I could have ever imagined. The wonderful fans at conventions, cruises, the barista at a coffee shop who handed me my coffee after the season two finale premiered and said, “Hey! Didn’t you just help save all sentient life in the galaxy?” – all of these humans have made an impact on me and inspire me to keep telling the stories I want to tell as I expand who I am as an artist. IDIC!