Michelle Hurd has shared plenty of moving stories about what “Star Trek” fandom means to her, but one memory stands out as particularly personal. Hurd described a gift she received from a fan during a signing event in Germany and how it caught her completely off guard.
An Unexpectedly Touching Gift
Hurd described the event at San Diego Comic Con. She explained that a fan presented her with a hand-drawn charcoal portrait of her late father, actor Hugh Hurd, and she was immediately overwhelmed. The fan, who was on the autism spectrum, immediately began apologizing because they were worried they had upset her.
Hurd recalled quickly reassuring the fan that there was nothing to apologize for, insisting it was her who should be sorry for getting emotional. She described the moment as one where everything else simply fell away. When she asked the fan what inspired the gift, the fan replied simply: “Because you mean so much to me, and I found out that your father had passed, and I thought you might want your daddy with you.”
Speaking directly to the Hall H audience after retelling the story, Hurd continued, “This is what you guys do. You touch us. I love acting. It’s you guys. You touch our hearts.”
A Fitting Tribute to Hurd’s Late Father
The story hits particularly close to home for Hurd, given her previous relationship with the “Star Trek” fandom and her father’s influence. She has credited her father, with shaping her relationship to the franchise by having the family watch “The Original Series” together. Hurd says that he understood how important it was for her and her sisters to see Uhura on screen, portrayed with intelligence, purpose, and grace. Representation is something fans have always called a strength of the franchise, and to see it touch the actors the same way is very powerful.
Hurd’s Journey to ‘Star Trek: Picard’
Michelle Hurd got her breakout role as Detective Monique Jeffries on “Law & Order: SVU” in 1999. She has enjoyed a career across television, film, and stage over the years, but she has most recently joined the “Star Trek” franchise as Raffi Musiker on “Picard.”
She began her relationship with “Law & Order” producer Dick Wolf when she maintained a consistent presence on “New York Undercover” between 1994 and 1995. She made a guest appearance on “Law & Order” before being cast in her perhaps most well-known role on the spinoff series “Special Victims Unit.”
She worked extensively in New York theater alongside her sister, Adrienne Hurd, in “Looking for Pony” before her work in television. She also starred in “900 Oneonta” with actor Garret Dillahunt, whom she would marry in 2007. In 2007 and 2008, Hurd held a recurring role on the iconic teen drama “Gossip Girl.”
Since then, Hurd would take recurring turns on “90210,” “Hawaii 5-0,” Netflix’s “Daredevil,” and “Ash vs. Evil Dead” before going to “Blindspot.” She played Ellen Briggs, also known as Shepherd, from 2015 to 2018.
Hurd has consistently worked as an advocate for industry safety and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the film and television industry.
