Leatrim Stang

Shannon Ratigan , also known by his stage name Leatrim Stang, is a comedian, musician, and actor who worked as a recurring background Romulan officer in three episodes and as Bajoran in one episode of .
==Early life and career==
Stang received classical acting training and also training as a musician. He was a snare drummer as early as high school, later becoming a symphony percussionist in college. In the late 1970s, Stang moved to Florida to pursue drumming as a profession, working in various bands and orchestras, as well as touring and recording.
Branching out into acting, Stang moved to New York in the late 1970s and by 1980 was living in Los Angeles where he became a character actor. For the next fifteen years he appeared in various commercials, TV shows, and films, mostly as a background actor while continuing his work as a musician. His first credited acting role, for which he also joined the Screen Actors Guild was a 1986 production of Aladdin, updated to modern Miami with Aladdin a teenager discovering a genie's lamp. Stang was credited as simply "painter" for this role.
Later roles included small parts in the locally produced films One Minute to Midnight and Shallow Grave, both released in the late 1980s.
==The Tonight Show==
Stang was a regular performer for eight seasons in the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and worked on hundreds of national television commercials for companies such as "McDonald's", "Diet Coke", "Big Red", and "Energizer Batteries". His film work include (1987), the television movie Jake Johannsen: This'll Take About an Hour (1991), (1991, with Mark Moses, Frank Military, Paul Williams, Titus Welliver, Allan Graf, Peter Crombie, Jad Mager, Kim Meredith, and Dennis Ott), the television documentary The JFK Conspiracy (1992, with B.J. Davis, Chris Doyle, and Charlie Skeen), (1992, with Tim Russ), (1993, with John de Lancie, Steven Culp, John Towey, Stephanie Erb, Eric Menyuk, and David Carpenter), and the drama True Rights (2000, with Richard Lee Jackson, Jonathan del Arco, and Lorin McCraley).
==Star Trek==
Stang appeared in Star Trek as both several Romulans and a Bajoran, but received no credit for his appearances. Using his stage name, the call sheets for the episode "The Mind's Eye" features him as Ratigan.
His Romulan characters were later featured in three Star Trek board games, trivia cards, and numerous publicity photos. He filmed his scenes for "The Mind's Eye" on Friday and on Thursday on Paramount Stage 8 and 16. The call sheet for the episode also features him as Ratigan and he filmed his scenes for this episode on Monday on location at Bronson Canyon.
Stang described on his official blog some experiences of his Star Trek adventure. He has always been fascinated by science, and is a Trek fan from early years on and always dreamed about being on the Enterprise bridge. Then one day it just "materialized". The pay-rate for one day of work was about $600.00 and he would usually work for three days on one episode. He had three hours in make-up for his Romulan appearance and started his day on set at 4 am, usually until 8 or 9pm. His costume was a one piece costume with a back zip. Michael Westmore told him once that his make-up and time to bring it up was about $5000.00 worth. 
==Later works==
Throughout his acting career, Stang continued drumming and served as a drumming instructor, advisor, and facilitator. His drumming credits include performing and hosting at the US Army Chief of Chaplains Religious Education Conference, several jazz festivals and county state fairs, as well facilitating at the Florida Festivals & Events Association's Convention Trade Show. By the 2000s, Stang was working as a drum facilitator for OSI Restaurant Partners and had become a faculty member who taught drumming at the .
In 2011 Stang published the book "An Actor's Face, Audition, Casting Advice, And Anecdotes From A Working Actor" with chapter 25 "Working on Star Trek". He also released a 2 hour DVD titled, "101 Drum Circle Rhythms", and two CD sets of live drum circle music. A further book, "A Practical Guide to Hand drumming and Drum Circles", was released in 2009.
== Star Trek appearances ==
File:Taibaks guard 1.jpg|Romulan officer(uncredited)
File:Bajoran settler 1.jpg|Bajoran(uncredited)
File:Romulan officer on Vilmor II 3.jpg|Romulan officer(uncredited)
File:Romulan officer in transporter room, 2369.jpg|Romulan officer(uncredited)
== External links ==
* – official site
* – newer official blog
* – old official blog
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Category:Performers
Category:TNG performers