Indian actress and model who played the Deltan navigator Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Persis Khambatta (1948–1998) was an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder, crowned Miss India in 1965, who went on to work in film internationally.
She is best remembered as Lieutenant Ilia, the Deltan navigator of the refitted Enterprise and former love of Willard Decker, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Khambatta shaved her head for the role. In the film Ilia is taken by the vast probe V'Ger and replaced by a robotic duplicate that carries the entity's message, and she ultimately merges with V'Ger alongside Decker. Her other films included Nighthawks.