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Julia Nickson (born 11 September 1958; age 65) is an actress who played Lian T'Su in the Star Trek: The Next Generation first season episode "The Arsenal of Freedom" and Cassandra in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine second season episode "Paradise".

During the pre-production of The Next Generation, she was considered for the role of Tasha Yar, but lost to Denise Crosby. [1]

Nickson was born in Singapore and lived in England and Africa as a child before returning to her island of birth where she embarked on a modeling career as a teenager. She left modeling to study hotel management at the University of Hawaii, but ended up studying drama and acting instead. She was discovered by a casting agent in Hawaii and got her first screen acting role in 1982 in an episode of Magnum P.I..

Her big break came when she auditioned for and won the female leading part in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, with Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff, and Jeff Imada). Besides the Rambo movie, she is best known for co-starring as Princess Aoura in the 1989 television miniseries version of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days (with James B. Sikking and Edward Wiley).

Science fiction fans also know Nickson for her role as Catherine Sakai in three episodes of Babylon 5 (starring Bill Mumy, Andreas Katsulas, and Caitlin Brown, with Walter Koenig, Thomas Kopache, and Bill Blair). She would have become a recurring character on seaQuest 2032 in 1996, but the show was canceled and she only made one appearance as Lieutenant Commander Heiko Kimura. She had a recurring role as Dr. Susan Lee in three episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger (starring Noble Willingham, with Clyde Kusatsu) between 1996 and 1998.

Nickson's other television appearances include guest roles on Airwolf (with Nick Dimitri), Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Chicago Hope (starring Jayne Brook), One West Waikiki (with Susan Diol, Mitchell Ryan, Robert Pine, Tamlyn Tomita, and Gwynyth Walsh), JAG (with Clyde Kusatsu), Nash Bridges (with Laura Albert and Cress Williams), and Castle (with Jonathan Banks, produced and directed by Rob Bowman).

She was formerly married to Star Trek: The Original Series guest star David Soul between 1987 and 1993, and often used the name Julia Nickson-Soul during that period. The couple has one daughter, China Soul.

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