Annie Wersching, who played Borg Queen on ‘Star Trek: Picard,’ dies at 45

Actress Annie Wersching, best known for her roles on the television series “Star Trek: Picard,” “24,” “Bosch” and “Timeless,” died Sunday morning in Los Angeles. She was 45.

The cause was cancer, her publicist, Craig Schneider, said in a statement. He noted that Wersching was diagnosed in 2020 but had continued her acting work, playing the Borg Queen on the second season of “Picard,” a “Star Trek” spinoff on Paramount+, as well as serial killer Rosalind Dyer on the ABC crime series “The Rookie.”

Wersching was also known for playing Julia Brasher, a police officer on the Amazon series “Bosch,” and Emma Whitmore, an engineer, on the NBC series “Timeless.” On Fox’s “24,” she played special FBI agent Renee Walker.

Wersching also provided the voice for the character Tess in “The Last of Us,” a 2013 video game that has recently been adapted into a television series on HBO.

“There is a cavernous hole in the soul of this family today,” her husband, actor Stephen Full, said in a statement. “But she left us the tools to fill it. She found wonder in the simplest moment. She didn’t require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you.”

Full noted that whenever he and his sons left their house, Wersching would shout “Bye!” until they were out of earshot.

“I can still hear it ringing,” he added.

In an interview with the Paramount+ show “The Ready Room,” Wersching described playing the Borg Queen as “certainly a little intimidating.” She noted that she had familiarized herself with the role and those who had previously played it before going forward with her own interpretation and performance. “It’s such an iconic role,” she said. “I’m incredibly excited to have everyone see.”

“Brandishing such talent,” Jon Cassar, director and producer of “24,” said in a statement, “she took my breath away.”

Wersching was born March 28, 1977, and raised in St. Louis by Sandy and Frank Wersching. In 1999, she received a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater from Millikin University in Chicago.

In addition to her husband, whom she married in 2009, she is survived by three children: Freddie, Ozzie and Archie Full.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.