Wendy Hughes, known to Star Trek fans for playing Nella Daren in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Lessons, has died at the age of 61.
In the episode she played Captain Picard’s love interest, Lt. Commander Nella Daren, sharing a memorable music recital scene in the Jeffries tube.
Her TNG episode was just one credit in a long and successful career that spanned from the stage to television to features, and included My Brilliant Career, Careful, He Might Hear You and State Coroner, as well as The Graduate, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and, in 2012, a Sydney Theater Company production of Pygmalion that cast her as Mrs. Higgins.
Hughes succumbed to cancer in Sydney, with actor Bryan Brown breaking the news to the audience at a Sydney Theatre Company Travelling North show and leading the audience to honor her with a standing ovation. The actress leaves behind a daughter, Charlotte, and a son, Jay.
March 14, 2014
Of all the Trek Relationship this felt the most real. Probably because it lasted an episode!! However the combination of writing and acting worked really well.
April 16, 2021
Was Hughes a pianist as well as an actress?
July 1, 2026
Neither Wendy Hughes nor Patrick Stewart played their respective instruments. (Hughes/Darren, the piano; Stewart/Picard, the Ressikan flute.) A husband and wife were body doubles, who made the performances look realistic.