Calen McGregor had never wanted to be an actress. It was the farthest thing from her mind when her best friend called from L.A. to ask her to come visit her over the summer of '89. Sheri had moved there with her family their senior year in high school, just 6 months shy of their graduation. It had torn them apart inside to be separated because they had been best friends since kindergarten, but they kept in touch by letters and phone calls ever since. Sheri had been looking forward to Calen's visit since graduation. Sheri was a make-up artist for television and lately she had gotten an assignment on the relatively new T.V. show Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was going on its 3rd season in August. She had heard through the grapevine that there would be some parts opening up, just some one-time roles and that they weren’t necessarily going to use veteran actors. Sheri really wanted to try out and she wanted Calen to come with her to try out too. Calen had fought a weight problem and had gotten up to 200 pounds but after a liquid diet and watching Oprah lost 67 pounds, she lost the weight. She would be great, Sheri thought, because they had done some acting in high school and Calen was pretty good. Calen really didn’t think she had a shot, but was excited about seeing L.A and seeing Sheri and her family again.

When the auditions came, there was a long line of beautiful actresses there and Calen became discouraged. They all had professional pictures, which she did not have, and they all certainly seemed confident, which she did not. After waiting in line, which seemed like forever, she finally saw someone. A woman who went through the women like Sherman through Georgia. Going down the line, she would point to one girl and say "Yes" and another and say "No". When she got to Sheri, she smiled and said "Hi Sheri, glad you are here, but sorry, you don’t fit the character profile". Sheri was disappointed, but when Calen was told "Yes", she was excited for her. All the "Yes" girls were told to wait outside and they would be called. Time passed and Calen was called in. It turned out to be a short interview when they discovered that she didn’t have pictures, wasn’t a member of the Screen Actors Guild and had never worked in front of the camera. She was quickly dismissed. Calen felt terribly humiliated and embarrassed that she got turned down. She had read a brief summary of the character they were creating and she had some great ideas. Sheri asked her if she wanted to go back to her apartment and drown their sorrows in some ice cream and hot fudge, but Calen said no, she wanted to be alone for a while. Calen found a fountain where she began to cry. Not because she necessarily wanted the part, but because she felt so inadequate in the presence of all those beautiful girls. She had been there about 15 minutes when a man sat down and offered his handkerchief to her. They began to talk and she really poured her heart out to him. She told him about the ideas she had for the new character and that no one gave her a chance to tell them. The man got up and took her hand and started guiding her inside the building. Calen being cautious, was getting worried that this was some sort of creep that was going to take advantage of her. "Trust me", is all he said and they went inside. "Mr. Roddenberry", the woman at the desk said when he came in. Mr. Roddenberry? THE Mr. Roddenberry? They went inside to an office where he sat her down and started writing down all she had said about the character. He seemed really excited. Then he took her to a room where she got to read with Jonathan Frakes, one of the actors. When that was done, Mr. Roddenberry got her phone number and told her he would call within the next week.

Back at the apartment, Sheri couldn’t believe what happened. Calen was convinced he wouldn’t call. Sheri knew he would. He did.

The role was for only one episode, but the episode got a lot of attention from Star Trek fans and a small group of fans bombarded the show with letters to keep the character on the show. Calen got the call at home in Alabama, there was a message on the answering machine when she got home from classes at the Junior college. She couldn’t believe it; they wanted to sign her on indefinitely as a new cast member!!

The rest is history. She stayed on Star Trek until its run ended in '94. She also did some movies. She settled down in L.A. in a small but elegant house not far from Sheri. Everything was going so well professionally for Calen, she was going to the Emmys, she was a presenter at the Academy Awards, and she was on magazines. Not terribly overexposed, but enough to keep the tabloids at bay, they didn’t hound her like they did the mega stars. She preferred it that way.

The only thing that suffered was her love life. She dated on and off for years. She became engaged in '97 but after finding out her was sleeping with one of her bridesmaids, it was over. He smeared her in the tabloids, telling them he slept with other women because she was so lousy in bed. It devastated her emotionally. She dated some after that, but she longed for a serious relationship, she was approaching her 30's and she was ready to be a wife and mother.

Then, she met the man of her dreams, a man she had loved and admired since she was young. Her life was never the same again.