(written from a Production point of view)
David Paul Needles (born 28 March 1955; age 68) played the first alien miner in the Star Trek: The Next Generation fifth season episode "The Perfect Mate". He filmed his scenes for this episode on Friday 21 February 1992 on Paramount Stage 8. He had previously appeared in Young Guns II (1990, with Leon Rippy, Alan Ruck, Christian Slater, and Tracey Walter).
Needles followed his Trek appearance with roles in Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story (1992, with Dennis Christopher), Girls in Prison (1994, with William Boyett, J. Patrick McCormack, and Tom Towles), and The '60s (1999, with Bill Smitrovich), as well as guest appearances on Brooklyn South (1997, working with Theodore Bikel and James B. Sikking) and Malcolm in the Middle (2002). Other credits include the thriller Automatic (2001) and the short comedy A Really Big Problem (2005).