‘Starfleet Academy’ Cadet Cast Talks Star Trek Lore, New Species Reveals, And Jonathan Frakes – TrekMovie.com

In addition to award-winning veteran actors and familar Star Trek faces, the new Star Trek: Starfleet Academy features a cast of young actors playing cadets, and TrekMovie had a chance to speak to them at a press event following the blue carpet premiere. The actors were split into trios: Bella Shepard (Genesis Lythe), Zoë Steiner (Tarima Sadal), and Karim Diané (Jay-Den Kraag) were in one room, and Sandro Rosta (Caleb Mir), Kerrice Brooks (Sam), and George Hawkins (Darem Reymi) were in the other.

All six actors were excited, enthusiastic, and charismatic, and seemed to be very much enjoying their crazy new journey together. [NOTE: Some of their answers contain SPOILERS from the first episode.]

TrekMovie: [To each trio:] Why do you think they put you three together?

Kerrice Brooks: That’s a great question!

Sandro Rosta: You know what, I think it’s because we feed off of like each other really well, like energy-wise. And I think I need a lot of help and you just give so much help to me,

Kerrice Brooks: You’re f***ing flying right now, bro.

Sandro Rosta: They’re like, Sandro needs to be happier. Put him with put him with Kerrice and George.

Kerrice Brooks: And also, we’re all fire signs too.

George Hawkins: I don’t know, but we’re all praying people as well. And I think that really centers all three of us for sure.

George Hawkins, Kerrice Brooks, and Sandro Rosta speak to TrekMovie

Bella Shepard: We’re he coolest, the hottest, the smartest, the strongest…

Zoë Steiner: The humblest. I think… yeah, I don’t know. (everyone laughs)

Karim Diané: What she said! The vibe is just right here. Like, I love these girls so much…

Bella Shepard: …but I miss, I miss the others.

Karim Diané: Yeah, I do miss the other ones.

Bella Shepard: I get separation anxiety.

Zoë Steiner: They put us with our boyfriend. I mean, I want to say it Laurie, but like…

Bella Shepard: This is our hard launch. (everyone laughs)

Zoë Steiner, Karim Diané, and Bella Shepard speak to TrekMovie

When you were all starting the show, there’s obviously the weight of so much Star Trek. It’s a 60-year-old franchise, and then there’s Discovery in particular. Did you want to get into that, or did you want to come in clean?

Bella Shepard: I personally wanted to come in clean. I was playing a brand-new species [Dar-Sha] that’s never been seen before, so I wanted to start with creating her and her world, and then I slowly dipped my toe into the Star Trek universe as a whole after that. But I wanted to come in semi clean, personally.

Zoë Steiner: For me, it was like both, I’d say, but not an equal split. I’m going to say 80/20, like 80% fresh, trust my instincts, my intuition, the process I do as an actor and and trust my way into Tarima as a Betazoid,  and then 20% deep dive, delve into Next Gen, Voyager, particularly Next Gen for me to see Deanna Troi. A bit of a balance between them both.

Karim Diané: I did so much research. I’ve watched everything that has Worf in it. I watched anything that has like a Klingon in it. I went online. I went into the blogs. I went on to Reddit, I was on TikTok watching videos…

And TrekMovie… [Karim had told us on the carpet that he reads the site]

Karim Diané: Obviously TrekMovie. But even, like going on YouTube and watching the videos and understanding, wow, people are on YouTube speaking Klingon, that’s something that I needed to know. Right on Duolingo! These are all things that I wanted to know. I wanted to know what the show presents Klingons as, and what Klingons are like in real life. I went to meet them in person at in Toronto at one of the comic conventions, Fan Expo. I did a lot of research, yeah.

Kerrice Brooks: I wanted to get into it before I started filming, because I wanted to know as much as possible. But while filming, I didn’t want to be influenced by anything. I really didn’t… I was really careful with not watching, especially what’s still on, like Strange New Worlds. I was like, ‘I can’t watch that right now, because it might affect the way I act.’ … It’s going to get in my head.

Sandro Rosta: I went back. I went and watched the older series. I started with The Original Series, and then I went on to TNG… I just took bits and pieces, I couldn’t watch all of it. I didn’t have enough time.

You’d need years!

Sandro Rosta: We had seconds to go from being hired to on camera. So I just soaked it in, took in as much as I could, and then yeah, the newer stuff I only watched briefly for esthetic purposes to see… Okay, what does the show look like? What’s the style of the editing and all this stuff? But yeah, I went back.

George Hawkins: I was quite careful with how much I took in, because I know what would happen to me is, like, the thing would become bigger and bigger and bigger, and bigger and bigger, and I’d become smaller and smaller and smaller. And I think there’s an advantage to, like… a naïveté and ignorance to it, so that you can sort of play and go to the absolute limits of your character. You don’t have to pay homage. It’s actually just finding the truth of your own character.

George, you play a species we’ve never seen before [Khionian]. We always do “ability watches” on new species, we start tracking all the things. I’ve seen six episodes — we don’t do spoilers, so —

George Hawkins: You’ll love [episode] seven. You’ll really love seven.

I’m very excited! But are we going to see more? We’ve seen the physical change. Are you allowed to talk about the choice to appear human?

George Hawkins: You will see more. And there’s a lovely thing that [co-showrunner/executive producer] Alex [Kurtzman] spoke to me about, where I asked, “What does it feel like? What does it feel like to be in each”— I want to say version of Darem— “and he said, “Being in his human skin is like holding his breath.” And I think that replicates what he’s doing when he goes to Starfleet Academy, is he’s putting on a front, he’s putting on a performance. He’s going for a reason. I think that those two things work hand in hand. So it’s not necessarily about storywise, but I think it’s about [how] it really helps me as the character to know this is a mask. He’s playing a character himself. He’s putting on a show. And his Khionian skin – his Khionian form, is the most vulnerable you see him. So when he does transform in front of Genesis, he asks her to turn around, like, ‘This is a lot for me.’ This is a very vulnerable, vulnerable thing for me to show because it’s finally in this place where he’s being someone completely different to who he truly is, that’s almost embarrassing. So I think they parallel really well his human form and and that performance that he’s putting on at the Academy.

I feel like I need to rewatch everything with that in my head.

George Hawkins: Please do!

Bella, we have not gotten a Genesis-focused episode yet in the first six. Is that coming?

Bella Shepard: It’s definitely something you can hopefully get to see in season 2. Yeah, you’ll get there.

And will we learn more about your species?

Bella Shepard: Um, it’s more personal, I think to Genesis, what we get to see in season 2 of her, I think we’re trying to take our time rolling out the Dar-Sha because, you know, there’s a whole culture and people… Yeah, so I think we’re taking our time with the Dar-Sha species as a whole, but we definitely get to know Genesis a lot more personally in season 2, and I’m very excited for people to see that.

Kerrice, you’ve taken on that “other” role, like Spock, Data, Seven, etc., where you get to offer unique observations about everyone else. Do you connect to that side of the character?

Kerrice Brooks: Oh, I connect to it because I feel like I moved around quite a bit as a child, like different schools, different dance studios, and so I felt like I never really felt like my feet were in the ground anywhere. And so with Sam, it feels like that gives me an opportunity to help her kind of find that for myself. That’s what Sam’s really like. Her journey is finding her own footing for herself. Not necessarily — yes, she’s being influenced, because she’s so new to life, but it’s like, ‘Okay, now, Sam, who are you?’ And that’s what’s made me really turn the mirror around and look at myself and be like, maybe we should discover that for ourselves too.

Like that scene [in the premiere] when she’s walking around saying “Will you be my friend?” Which is what kids in kindergarten do and it works.

Kerrice Brooks: Yeah, man.

But I wish it worked now.

Kerrice Brooks: I wish it worked now too. I kind of do it sometimes randomly, like, if I go skating by myself, and I’d be like, “Hey what’s your name? I like your shoelaces…” And if they respond, I’m like, “F*** yeah.” And if they don’t, I’m like, ‘That’s all right. It’s not your fault, Kerrice, we’ll just get the next one.”

[to Bella, Karim, and Zoë] How does the vibe change when Jonathan Frakes shows up to direct?

Bella Shepard: It’s like a breath of fresh air.

Karim Diané: I feel like he leads with comedy. Is that safe to say…

Bella Shepard: He’s gentle.

Karim Diané: And gentle, I feel like he really disarms. At least me. I’ll speak for myself, he disarmed me with how he cracks jokes, and he’s very gentle, and he wants to get to know everybody, and that allowed me to trust him.

Bella Shepard: He was supposed to be directing Genesis’s episode, actually, in season 2, but there was some conflict going on, and hopefully he’ll be back again. He’s the warmest, kindest person.

Karim Diané: Love him.

Bella Shepard: We love him a lot.

Yeah, and singing too, right?

Bella Shepard: Lots. Lots of singing.

More junket and SFA blue carpet interviews to come

TrekMovie also spoke individually with with Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner on the blue carpet, where we also spoke to Kate Mulgrew, and Tawny Newsome. From the press junket, we’ve already posted our interviews with Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, and showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. Keep your eye out for more of those interviews coming up on the site and on @trekmovie YouTube.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 06: Tawny Newsome, Becky Lynch, Robert Picardo, Karim Diane, Raoul Bhaneja, Bella Shepard, Holly Hunter, George Hawkins, Sandro Rosta, Mary Wiseman, Zoë Steiner, Tig Notaro, Gina Yashere, Kerrice Brooks and Paul Giamatti attend the world premiere of Starfleet Academy at American Museum of Natural History on January 06, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Paramount+)

Also, check out our reviews of the premiere episodes, “These Kids Today” and “Beta Test,” as well as the All Access Star Trek podcast discussion about the season and the blue carpet event premiere event.

Watch Starfleet Academy now (free)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy arrived on Paramount+ on Thursday, January 15, 2026 with a two-episode premiere. Its first season will run for ten episodes.

For a limited time in January (in the USA), you can watch the series premiere for free on YouTube and on Pluto TV.

Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.