page_title: Ishka
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: Ishka / Casting
caption_attribution_description: Andrea Martin in New York City
context_page_description: Ishka is a fictional character from the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. A female Ferengi, she is the mother of Quark and Rom. Ishka appears in five canon episodes of DS9, and also features in seven licensed-but-non-canon Star Trek novels.
  Conceptualized as a feminist character, Ishka was played by Andrea Martin once and Cecily Adams four times. Both actresses suffered under a lot of makeup, prostheses, and costuming. Adams loved the character, and was stunned by the positive fan reaction to Ishka.
context_section_description: Director David Livingston recalled that they had a difficult time finding somebody to play Ishka; at one point, he even made the unpopular suggestion that Wallace Shawn (Grand Nagus Zek) appear in drag as Quark and Rom's mother.  Andrea Martin was cast at the suggestion of episode director René Auberjonois (Odo), who felt the actress could manage the right balance of comedy and good acting that was missing from the applicants he had seen thus far.  Showrunner Ira Steven Behr agreed with Auberjonois on the casting, later saying he loved her on Second City Television.  Martin was offered the role without even having to audition.  Ira Behr, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and David Livingston all had good things to say about the casting of Martin as Ishka.
  When, at the last minute, Martin could not return for "Ferengi Love Songs", the show held auditions for the role and saw "a lot of people".  Prior to auditioning, Cecily Adams was only peripherally familiar with the Star Trek universe, having only seen a few Next Generation and Voyager episodes.  Adams was friends with actress Kitty Swink, and auditioned with the help of Swink's husband Armin Shimerman (Quark); Shimerman loaned her a tape of Martin's episode—"Family Business"—from which she learned "how broad the character was."  Adams attributed her successful audition to the many similarities between her and Martin: not only did Martin's costumes fit without need for alteration, but so did the prosthetic faceplate.  Described as a "natural mimic" by the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, Behr said that Adams "just did Moogie."  Even though she had the character down pat, Adams would later admit to having trouble with the Star Trek vernacular.  Ishka was a radical departure for Adams: she'd never played an alien before, usually being cast as secretaries in shows such as Simon and Simon and Murphy Brown.
caption: Andrea Martin (2008)
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