Denise Lynn Okuda, née Tathwell, affectionately called “Neezee” by friends and close co-workes, living in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Michael and their dogs, Molly and Tranya, started her official live-action Star Trek affiliation in 1993 as scenic artist on the entire run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as on the Star Trek films, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek Nemesis. As computer & video supervisor, she served on the entire run of Star Trek: Voyager. Nevertheless, as fan and under her maiden name Denise Tathwell, she made an early contribution in 1979 when she made an uncredited appearance as an Enterprise crewmember in the recreation deck scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Aside from this, she had Captain D. Tathwell of the USS Ahwahnee named after her under her maiden name, though the reference on the Operation Retrieve mission chart, incidentally created by her husband, was ultimately cut from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as released.