Denise Michelle Crosby (born November 24, 1957) is an American actress and model, best known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar in season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as Yar's daughter, the half-Romulan Commander Sela, in subsequent seasons. She is also known for her numerous film and television roles, and for starring in and producing the film Trekkies.
Denise Michelle Crosby was born on November 24, 1957 in Hollywood, California, the daughter of Marilyn Scott and actor Dennis Crosby (whom Denise was named after). Her mother pursued a sensational, three-year-long lawsuit against her father, at the conclusion of which he was ordered to pay child support and legal fees. This deeply embarrassed Dennis and his father, actor and singer Bing Crosby. Although Crosby was 19 when her grandfather died, she had never met him.
Crosby attended LeConte Junior High School, followed by Hollywood High School and Cabrillo College, where she studied theater. She dropped out of college after she was interviewed by a local paper and revealed her famous family background: "One of the drama teachers used the story to illustrate to the class that this crap is what Hollywood's all about, using people's names to get somewhere. I was very, very hurt by it. So I just checked out." She started modeling and in 1979 posed nude for Playboy magazine, which she called "some kind of rebellion on my part, some way of saying screw you to the family image".