TODAY IN STAR TREK HISTORY: Star Trek: Picard's Isa Briones is Born
Isa Briones as Soji in STAR TREK: PICARD. Image: Paramount+.
“Blue skies, smilin' at me
Nothin' but blues skies do I see….”
JANUARY 17, 2023 - Perhaps the last time you heard Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” was at the end of season one of Star Trek: Picard. And it wasn’t Ella Fitzgerald or Willie Nelson you heard covering it; it was Picard’s own Isa Briones, who played Soji Asha, Dahj Asha, Sutra, and Kore Soong in the series. Today in Star Trek history we celebrate Isa Briones’ latest trip around ol’ Sol.
Briones was born on this date in 1999 in London to actors Jon Jon Briones and Megan Briones (Johnson). (Jon Jon Briones also appeared in Star Trek: Picard as the Confederation Magistrate in season two’s “Penance” and “Assimilation.”) Both her parents were in musical theater as Briones was growing up and finding her own way into the business. By the time she was 17, she was appearing as Natalie in Next to Normal, for which she won a 2018 Ovation Award for Featured Actress in a Musical. At 19 she became the youngest person to join the first national touring company of Hamilton, in which she played Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds and understudied for the role of Eliza Hamilton.
Then came Briones’ casting for Picard, in which she played multiple characters, performed many of her own stunts, and, of course, sang “Blue Skies.”
She reflected on the latest season of Picard by saying, “I would say that my favorite thing about it is that we’re seeing these characters in a new light. And there’s a big emphasis, I think, on mental health, for sure. We’re seeing these characters going through some hard moments and really leaning on each other and prioritizing their own mental health in order to save everyone else. And I think that’s a very relatable storyline and a storyline that we need right now.”
Last year Briones was back on stage for, among other projects, a production of Grease, in which she played Betty Rizzo with “power pipes and tough-girl swagger.” Sounds familiar….
Please join us in wishing Isa Briones a happy 23rd birthday and nothing but blue skies.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
