Willie Garson

Willie Garson is the actor who played Riga in the Star Trek: Voyager episode.

Garson was born in Highland Park, New Jersey. A graduate of Weslayan University where he majored in theater, he is best known for his recurring role as Stanford Blatch in the HBO television series Sex and the City, starring actress Kim Cattrall. In 2008 he reprised this role for the feature film Sex and the City, again along Cattrall and with stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker. He also had recurring roles on Mr. Belvedere, Boy Meets World, Party of Five, the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, and NYPD Blue. In the latter series, he worked alongside the likes of Gordon Clapp, Sharon Lawrence, Steve Rankin, and Don Stark.

Garson also co-starred with future Star Trek: Enterprise actors Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in several episodes of Quantum Leap, most notably a 1992 two-parter in which he played Lee Harvey Oswald. Garson's many other television credits include Cheers (starring Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth), Twin Peaks (with Mädchen Amick, Richard Beymer, Carel Struycken, and Ray Wise), L.A. Law (with Daniel Benzali, Corbin Bernsen, and Larry Drake), The X-Files (one episode with Thomas Kopache and another with Nicholas Worth), Mad About You (with Anne Elizabeth Ramsay and Alan Ruck), The Practice (with Charles Cooper, Robin Gammell, Natalia Nogulich, and Craig Wasson), Ally McBeal (two episodes, including one with Bob Gunton and Albert Hall), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (in an episode with Richard Herd), Friends, Spin City (starring Alan Ruck), Monk (with Stanley Kamel), CSI, and CSI: Miami. Garson also appeared in the 2002 sci-fi mini-series Taken, as did Matt Frewer and Gwynyth Walsh.

Garson has been seen in three films directed by Bobby and Peter Ferrelly: 1996's Kingpin (with Googy Gress), 1998's There's Something About Mary, and 2005's Fever Pitch (with Jack Kehler and James B. Sikking. He has also appeared in a many other popular films, including Soapdish (starring Whoopi Goldberg and Teri Hatcher), Groundhog Day (1993), Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995, co-starring Christopher Lloyd, Bill Cobbs, Don Stark, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr., Bill Bolender, and Bill Erwin), The Rock (1996, with Tony Todd and Marshall R. Teague), Mars Attacks! (1996, with Paul Winfield, Michael Reilly Burke, and Jeanne Mori), and Being John Malkovich (1999). He more recently appeared in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday and the 2005 romantic comedy Just Like Heaven, both co-starring Rosalind Chao (with the latter also featuring Ron Canada).

He is currently playing one of the main characters on USA network's White Collar.