Chase Masterson was born on February 26, 1963 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is perhaps best known as sexy casino girl "Leeta" on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) and "Ivy Lief" on "General Hospital" (1963), as well as being the featured guest star in the first Emmy Award-winning episode of "ER" (1994).
Chase was recently named one of the "Hot Leading Ladies" of Film in 2008 by "Film Fetish," one of the world's "50 Sexiest Women" by "Femme Fatales Magazine," the "#1 Favorite Science Fiction Actress on Television" in a "TV Guide" online readers poll, and one of the "Top 20 People to Watch in Hollywood" by "Sci-Fi Universe Magazine." She was also named "Best Feature Film Producer" by the LA Femme Film Festival for her work on Yesterday Was a Lie (2008).
Chase got her start as a child actor, singer, and dancer in Texas. After several theatre and film roles in her youth and teen years, she got her first big break in lead roles in the low budget thrillers "In a Moment of Passion" (1993) and "Married People, Single Sex" (1993) as well as "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" (1993) (in which she played Richard Lewis' girlfriend).
Actress originally auditioned for the one-time guest role of Jake Sisko's girlfriend "Mardah" in a 1994 episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993), but was told that, at age 21, she was a bit too old to be romantically involved with the teenage Jake character. Director Avery Brooks has subsequently indicated at Trek conventions that he held off casting her because he "didn't want [his] character's son to be with someone so sexy", and that he hoped she would be brought on as a regular cast member (perhaps as a love interest for himself). The role of "Leeta" was then written for her (although she was apparently still required to audition for it), and she remained in the role for the final five years of the show's run.
Prominent recent film roles include "J.A.N.I.C.E. Em" in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles (2006) and the "Singer" in Yesterday Was a Lie (2008).
She hosted "Sci-Fi Entertainment" (1998) for the Syfy Channel in the 1990s and an Internet-based radio talk show for the website The Fandom in 2004-2005. She has also hosted "Showtime: Nighttime" and Encore's "Starz On Demand" and guest-hosted "CNet Central" (1996) and NBC's "Saturday Night at the Movies" (1974).
Chase is also a singer of jazz/torch songs and has received positive reviews for her music from magazines such as "Film Score Monthly" and "Entertainment Today". Masterson has recently performed in USO tours for the Navy and the Marine Corps. Masterson has been actively involved in numerous charities worldwide, including Caring for Babies With AIDS, Homeboy Industries, Iris Ministries, and Youth With a Mission, and founded the G.E.N.I.U.S. charity umbrella organization which is supported by her licensed fan club. She donated proceeds from a 2008 American flag photo shoot to the organization Operation Call Home, supplying phone cards to U.S. troops.
Following a series of stalking incidents instigated by a man in Berlin, this actress was the plaintiff in a highly controversial legal case in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that user-account-based websites constitute "interactive computer services" under the Communications Decency Act and are therefore not liable for information published on them. The court also ruled that public figures are not entitled to the same privacy protection online as other individuals. The case precedent has since been used to indemnify websites such as Craigslist when used to advertise illegal services.
Chase recently few as executive producer on the documentary film "Through Your Eyes" (2007) (about the world's only deaf-blind triplets) and has optioned the rights to the HarperCollins novel "The Camel Bookmobile" (2012).
