Quark, son of Keldar and Ishka, is a fictional character and anti-hero in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played by Armin Shimerman, and a regular for the show's seven-year run. A member of the ultra-capitalist Ferengi, Quark owned a bar on the Promenade of Deep Space Nine. Before opening Quark's on the station, Quark served as a cook aboard a Ferengi freighter for eight years.

Quark originally came to the station while it was named Terok Nor during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. Originally, Quark admired the Cardassian race for their version of morality, but later he seemed to take pity on the downtrodden Bajoran people, selling them food and equipment just above cost, which could have gotten him into serious trouble if the Cardassians had found out. When the station changed hands at the end of the occupation, Quark decided to leave the station.

Commander Sisko, feeling that Quark's presence would encourage commercial tourism to boost the station's economy, exhorted Quark to stay, using his nephew, Nog as a bargaining chip, in the Deep Space Nine pilot episode, "Emissary". Quark nevertheless continued to conduct a variety of shady deals while on the station, but neither Sisko nor the Bajoran authorities took many punitive actions against him, perhaps because his contribution to station tourism outweighed the trouble caused by his activities, which were legal according to Ferengi law and, for the most part, harmed no one. A shrewd businessman, Quark is often seen in the series quoting the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.

When the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, Quark helped broker deals between several Gamma Quadrant races and the Ferengi. The Alpha Quadrant's first knowledge of the Dominion came through business dealings that Quark and the Ferengi had in the Gamma Quadrant with the Karemma of the Dominion. Quark's role in these dealings came about as a result of the interference of Grand Nagus Zek.

Quark became Grand Nagus for a brief period when it appeared that Zek had died; however, Zek's death turned out to be a ruse and Quark was promptly deposed. Along with Commander Sisko, Quark was also among the first to encounter the genetically engineered soldiers of the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar.

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