American former child actress who played Clara Sutter in The Next Generation episode Imaginary Friend and the holographic girl Taya in the Deep Space Nine episode Shadowplay.
Noley Thornton is an American former child actress who worked in film and television in the 1990s, including the title role in a television version of Heidi.
Her first Star Trek appearance was in The Next Generation's fifth-season episode Imaginary Friend as Clara Sutter, a lonely girl aboard the Enterprise-D whose invented playmate Isabella is given form by an alien intelligence.
She returned in the Deep Space Nine episode Shadowplay as Taya, a village child whose mother has disappeared. Her scenes with Rene Auberjonois, in which Taya coaxes the gruff Odo into changing shape for her, are the emotional centre of the story.