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Michelle Forbes (born January 8, 1965) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her television work on shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Homicide: Life on the Street, 24, Battlestar Galactica, In Treatment and Prison Break. A longtime resident of New York City, Forbes owned a house in Los Angeles` Hollywood Dell neighborhood.

Initially wanting to do ballet, Forbes moved to New York at age 16 to audition for a film role, and ended up with the William Morris Agency. In 1987, she was cast in a pivotal role on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light. She received acclaim for her portrayal of the complicated dual role of Sonni/Solita; she was just 20 years old when she was cast, and was involved in a story with two of the show`s powerhouse characters. Forbes earned a Daytime Emmy nomination. After this role, she continued in theater, which was an early love of hers, and began appearing in small guest roles on television to raise her profile. 1994 she played George`s girlfriend Julie in the Seinfeld episode The Big Salad.

In 1991, she had a small role in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation as the daughter of a character played by David Ogden Stiers ("Half a Life"). The producers were evidently impressed, as she was brought back in the fifth season to play Ro Laren, a recurring character, for several episodes. Ro was a Bajoran whose insubordinate attitude made her several enemies, but the crew of the Enterprise - particularly Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) - took her in. Her first major television role after Star Trek was as Julianna Cox in Homicide: Life on the Street from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, Forbes was written out of the show as part of a massive cast change which many fans see as responsible for the show`s demise just one season later. She returned in the 2000 TV movie.

In 2000, Forbes had a recurring role in the first eight episodes of the TV series The District which she followed up with the TV series Wonderland, a series set in a mental institution. Forbes played Dr. Lyla Garrity. The series was critically hailed, but it only aired for a few weeks in the US before being cancelled. Forbes herself described it as a "mess that put [her] off series television". She then learned British Sign Language for the role of the profoundly deaf wife of Detective Red Metcalfe (Ken Stott) in the 2001 BBC television serial Messiah, and she returned for the sequels in 2003 and 2004. She also appeared in Perfume (aka Dress to Kill), an ensemble film about the world of fashion.

In 2002 she joined the cast of the FOX series 24. The series, set in real time over the course of one day, had been a critical success during its first season. Forbes played Lynne Kresge, aide to President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert). Notoriously, several plot points - including Lynne Kresge`s fate - were left open and never resolved; while the show returned for a third season, Forbes did not.

In 2005, Forbes was set to head the cast of Mark Burnett`s television series based on the Global Frequency series of comic books, but the pilot was not picked up. She subsequently guest starred on Alias and The Inside.

In 2006, Forbes was a recurring cast member on Prison Break playing Samantha Brinker. She appeared on another sci-fi series, as the unflinchingly militaristic Admiral Helena Cain in season two of Battlestar Galactica. She reprised that role in the two-hour special Battlestar Galactica: Razor, which was br

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