Susan Carol-Schwary

Susan Carol-Schwary was a hair stylist and designer who worked as hair designer on the first sixteen episodes of the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She succeeded Yolanda Toussieng and was replaced by Joy Zapata.

Born as Susan Carol Shoffner in San Diego, California, USA, she attended Citrus College, a community college in Glendora, California, where she majored in business, art and cosmetology. While vacationing in Hawaii in 1970, she met producer and director Ronald Schwary, whom she married the following year. However, the couple divorced in November 1994. They had two children together, Brian and Neil, who have both become actors. In addition to raising her two sons, Schwary began working as a hair stylist on films. In 1986, she joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, or IATSE, as a Film Hair Stylist.

Following an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Becoming" in 1998, shared with Suzan Bagdadi and Francine Shermaine, Schwary was elected to the executive board of Local 706 and one year later to be a delegate at the I.A.T.E. 64th Convention. Schwary received her second and third Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series in 2004 for her work on the Deadwood episode "Plague", shared with Ellen Powell and Josée Normand, and for her work on the NBC drama series Providence.

Her first film as a member of IATSE was the 1987 science fiction comedy *batteries not included, which was produced by her husband. The cast of this film included Wendy Schaal, who later appeared on Star Trek: Voyager. Schwary's next film was the 1989 comedy Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, which featured several Star Trek acting alumni including David Graf, Matt McCoy, Kenneth Mars, Gerrit Graham, and Arthur Batanides. Gloria Montemayor, who later worked on Star Trek: Voyager, was a Second Unit Hair Stylist on this film.

Schwary's next film credits were the horror film Lisa (1990, working with actress Julie Cobb and makeup artist June Westmore), the romance Havana (19904, executive produced by her husband and featuring actors Daniel Davis and Tony Plana), and the comedy Another You (1991, with performers Vanessa Williams and Phil Rubenstein and makeup artist Monty Westmore). She worked on the 1994 comedy Cops and Robbersons along with with fellow TNG hair stylist Rita Bellissimo. Cops and Robbersons marked Schwary's third credited collaboration with her husband, who was a producer on the film, but the two divorced soon after its released. Nonetheless, Susan Carol decided to keep the last name of Schwary.

After the divorce, Schwary became a hair stylist on the Paramount Television drama series JAG for its first season (1995-96). She then joined the crew of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for which she received her first Emmy Award nomination in 1998. The following year, she was a key hair stylist on the independent film Black and White, which featured a cast that included Cyia Batten, Seymour Cassel, and Boris Lee Krutonog. Schwary also started working on Providence, for which she received a second Emmy Award nomination. She later became a hair designer on the 2002 crime film Deuces Wild (working with Linda Leiter Sharp) and was a hair stylist on the 2003 blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Lee Arenberg, Vanessa Branch, Greg Ellis, Zoe Saldana, and Guy Siner all had roles in the latter film as did hair stylists Hazel Catmull, Romy Fleming, Josée Normand, Katherine Rees, and Ve Neill.

In 2004, Schwary was a hair stylist on the HBO western series Deadwood, receiving her third and last Emmy Award nomination. She subsequently worked on the films Sky High (2005, working with Candace Neal), Red Eye (2005, which featured Loren Lester, Scott Leva, Robert Pine, Suzie Plakson, and Dey Young), and the Academy Award-winning Little Miss Sunshine (2006, which featured Wallace Langham and Matt Winston). She followed these with stints of the NBC comedy series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006) and the CBS drama series CSI: New York (2008).

Schwary died of breast cancer at her home in Valencia, California on September 10, 2009. She was 61 years old.