Marina is an unpretentious, down to earth, and amusing young lady. Her real life sounds like it came from the pages of a Charles Dickens novel.

"I come from a very working class family in North London. My dad was a tailor and my mum was a dressmaker who helped my dad when he started his own business," she recalls. "I lived in a pretty rough neighborhood when I was growing up. My parents worked long hours for very little money. My dad had to work so hard that he slept on a camp bed at work and didn't come home!" she said with a laugh.

Despite her grim upbringing, her parents weren't keen on her getting into show business.

"My mum didn't want me to become an actress, so they made me stay at school until I was 18. My parents were born in Greece and, to them, being an actress was the next best thing to being a street walker! They left Greece in the 1950s and brought all of the old values over to England with them."

Despite her parents' views, Marina was determined to follow her own star.

"I secretly wrote to drama schools for auditions, but I also wrote to universities because my mum wanted me to be a lawyer," Marina continues. "I was trying to fool my parents, but basically I didn't think I would get into drama school. I was quite shocked when I was accepted."

Marina worked in theater and on television in London before she came to the United States.

"A year before I came to America, I hadn't really hit the big time in England. I wasn't really a struggling actress, but I wasn't wealthy. I worked pretty constantly, but it was in the theater. The pay was dreadful. I just managed to keep my head above water."

She left England without any job prospects in Hollywood.

"I'm not a thinker; I'm a doer," Marina says, comparing her personal life to her on-screen character. "That is a prime example of what I'm like. It's unlike my character in Star Trek. She is a total thinker and not a doer at all. The day I bought my plane ticket to America I layed in bed and tried to follow things through in my head. I got so terrified that I did a Scarlett O'Hara and said, 'I'll think about it tomorrow.'"

Needless to say, she fell in love with California and the acceptance she felt.

"Most English people who aren't upper class love Los Angeles. No matter how famous or popular I got, there are certain segments of society in London that would not be open to me. As a working class girl, there are circles where you would never be included no matter how successful you are. There is a terrible snobbishness in England. I would never be invited to Buckingham Palace," she says with refreshing honesty.

She does get invited to conventions. "I'm the Convention Queen! I go all over the country." Marina laughs when she says that some fans know more about the Star Trek series and movies than she does. "The fans are wonderful. I love the fans. I think they are the most loyal fans in the world. They are responsible for my having a job. I answer all my fan mail. I have help, but it does get answered," she said appreciatively.