Patrick Kerr (born 23 January 1956; age 70) is the actor who played the Bothan in the Star Trek: Voyager second season episode "Persistence of Vision".
He is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Jewish Trekkie Noel Shempsky on Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammer. Kerr appeared in 22 episodes of the series from the 13th episode in 1994 to the series finale in 2004. Noel, who worked at Frasier's radio station, was obsessed with Star Trek, including:
Kerr doing the Vulcan salute in Frasier in 1993.
- being fluent in Klingon and, as a prank on Frasier, teaching him his son's Bar Mitzvah blessing in Klingon instead of Hebrew;
- having an autographed picture of Captain Kirk in his cubicle;
- circulating a petition to have a four-breasted "space vixen" added as a character on the show, as a tribute to his crush, Roz Doyle;
- having William Shatner issue a restraining order against him, due to an unfortunate incident with a fake phaser;
- asking Frasier to stop by a Star Trek convention and get Scott Bakula's autograph in order to complete his collection of captains' autographs (Noel couldn't go himself because of the aforementioned restraining order); when Frasier failed to complete this task, he made up for it by purchasing the wig Joan Collins wore in "The City on the Edge of Forever" at auction and giving it to Noel. Kelsey Grammer played a starship captain himself as Morgan Bateson of the USS Bozeman on TNG: "Cause And Effect".
Kerr and fellow Voyager guest actor Don McManus were regulars on Oh Baby from 1998 through 2000. In addition, Kerr has made guest appearances on such programs as Law & Order (1993, with Leon Russom), The Drew Carey Show (1995, starring Diedrich Bader), Friends, Seinfeld (with Jason Alexander and Richard Herd), Veronica's Closet (1997, starring Kirstie Alley, with Christopher McDonald), 3rd Rock from the Sun, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Will & Grace, ER (with Star Trek: Enterprise guest actors Steven Culp and Daniel Dae Kim), and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (starring Paul Guilfoyle and Wallace Langham, with Rick Worthy). He has also been seen in such films as Jeffrey (1995, starring Patrick Stewart and Steven Weber), Stuart Saves His Family (1995, co-starring Robert Curtis Brown, Aaron Lustig, Dakin Matthews, Denver Mattson, Richard Riehle, Jeremy Roberts, Kevin Michael Richardson, Camille Saviola and Harris Yulin), Ed (1996, starring Jayne Brook, with Stan Ivar, Jim O'Heir, Bill Cobbs, Leonard Kelly-Young, Jay Caputo, Doren Fein, Noon Orsatti and Mitchell Ryan), and Domino (2005, with Stanley Kamel) as well as Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996, starring Gary Graham, Eric Pierpoint, Michele Scarabelli, and Tiny Ron), Toothless (1997, starring Kirstie Alley, with Joel Swetow), The David Cassidy Story (2000, starring Andrew Kavovit, Malcolm McDowell and Dey Young), and When Billie Beat Bobby (2001, starring Holly Hunter, with Bob Gunton, Michael Cavanaugh, Paul Collins, Leonard Kelly-Young and Scott Klace).