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“Happy as a pig in shit”: Paul Giamatti says his Starfleet Academy role fulfills a lifelong Trek dream
For years Paul Giamatti wanted a Star Trek role, and thanks to Starfleet Academy, it’s finally happening
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Paul Giamatti has been a Marvel villain, an orangutan, and even Santa Claus. However, the award-winning actor has always desired a role in Star Trek, and thanks to the upcoming series Starfleet Academy, he’s finally getting his wish.
“I am a real deal fan,” Giamatti says during a Star Trek spotlight panel at New York Comic Con. “Since about seven or eight years old I’d watch it with my father. So, I grew up with it. All the iterations of it. I love it. I had always been sort of saying it to people, ‘Gosh, I wish I could be on Star Trek someday.’ And then it actually happened. And then I was saying, ‘Gosh, I wish I could play a Klingon.’ And then it sort of happened.”
Giamatti will be playing Nus Braka, a Klingon/Tellarite hybrid who has a mysterious past with one of the Starfleet cadets. “I play a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite. And the Tellarites are these really aggressive disputatious pig people, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m all over that.’ So, I got to play up, ‘I’m the bad guy.’ It’s fantastic. There’s a great tradition of bad guys. I get to do it. So, I’m happy as a pig in shit.”
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026.
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