Armin Shimerman Biography

Armin Shimerman is an American actor famous for portraying ‘Quark’ in the television series ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ in which his visage was masked underneath a ton of prosthetic cosmetics. Spending his early years in his hometown Lakewood, New Jersey, and shifting to Los Angeles at age 15, Shimerman initially did not nurture ambitions of becoming an actor. However, fate had other plans! He became active on the stage due to his mother’s insistence and was one of the eight candidates finally selected out of nearly 900 to apprentice at Old Globe Theater in San Diego, CA. Nursing hopes of making it big in Broadway, he relocated to NYC and was successful in landing parts in the musicals, ‘Threepenny Opera’ and ‘I Remember Mama’ and the drama, ‘Saint Joan.’ Nevertheless, he shifted back to Los Angeles, appearing as a guest star in the TV serials, ‘The Facts of Life,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Remington Steele,’ ‘Cagney and Lacey,’ ‘L.A. Law,’ and ‘Who’s the Boss?’ In due course, he bagged the character of ‘Quark’—a Ferengi bartender—in the enduring sci-fi TV series, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. Following his starring role as Quark in two other Star Trek spinoffs, ‘Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Voyager’, he became one of the five actors to feature as the same personality in three distinct Star Trek series. Shimerman has also earned recognition by acting in a string of movies, performing as a voiceover artist, and co-authoring a book series.