Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is a gifted Viper pilot, with an attitude that has hindered her career in the Colonial Fleet. However, William Adama has confidence in Thrace's military skills, and she greatly aids the Fleet inside and out of the cockpit. She is the last Commander, Air Group (CAG) of Galactica, and mysteriously vanishes in a region that will later be known as Tanzania on the second Earth shortly after the Fleet's arrival on the planet (Daybreak, Part II).

Thrace's mother Socrata was a former Colonial Marine Corps sergeant major. She beat her daughter so frequently that Thrace came to accept pain as a way of life ("Flesh and Bone", "Maelstrom").

Her father Dreilide was a pianist and composer. Kara seems to have been closer to him than with her mother (Valley of Darkness, Someone to Watch Over Me) until he left them.

Thrace left home to join the military. During her training, she was disciplined for insubordinate conduct towards superior officers.

She was a talented pyramid player (Resistance), and was up for the pros, but an injured knee took her out of contention. However, she discovered a passion and skill for being a fighter pilot (Podcast:The Hand of God).

One of her early posts was aboard the battlestar Triton. While there, she offended Commander Myron Ruth, who initiated court-martial proceedings against her, but the charges were later dropped (The Son Also Rises).

Thrace eventually returned to flight school as an instructor, where she fell in love with one of her students, Zak Adama. Despite his poor performance, she allowed him to pass his final check flight although he failed three of the required maneuvers (Act of Contrition).

Thrace lost Zak Adama when he was killed during a routine mission shortly after graduating. Lee Adama ("Apollo"), Zak's elder brother, blamed their father for Zak's death, and Thrace, feeling guilty, kept quiet. She met William Adama shortly after the accident, and the two formed a strong rapport and stood together at the funeral (Act of Contrition).

Thrace resigned as an instructor and returned to the Fleet as an operational pilot on the battlestar Galactica under the command of William Adama, where she served for some two years prior to the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Before the Cylon attack, she was second-in-command to the CAG, Jackson Spencer.

She has a rarely-used run-down apartment in Delphi that overlooked a parking lot, and a Colonial version of a Humvee which she and Helo use to escape the city and get to the country where she meets her Samuel Anders. She was also an avid painter, and her apartment is cluttered with her paintings and a poem written on a wall (Valley of Darkness). The apartment was neater when Thrace was with Zak Adama, although her mandala wall painting pre-dates that relationship. (Daybreak, Part I).

Thrace hides the fact that she is deeply spiritual. She frequently prays to the Lords of Kobol, particularly Aphrodite and Artemis in dire situations (Miniseries, "Flesh and Bone", "You Can't Go Home Again").