Star Trek: Starfleet Academy — Meet the Full Cast Of Season 2
Here’s everything we know about the cast (old and new) in Starfleet Academy’s final season.
It feels strange, knowing that Starfleet Academy won’t be continuing beyond its second season. The Star Trek series got the axe shortly after Season 1 concluded — by then, however, Season 2 was well into production. That’ll give fans of the show one last hurrah to look forward to. Novel as Starfleet Academy might have been in terms of subject matter and sex appeal, the show’s true charm lies with its cast. We sat through the teen drama and angsty hijinks because of the characters at the center of it all, and though we (probably) won’t be able to watch these cadets grow into Starfleet officers, at least we’ll get just a few more adventures with the crew.
Ahead of the new season, which hits Paramount+ in March 2027, here’s everything we know about the returning cast — and the new faces coming aboard, too.
Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter)
A plucky half-Lanthanite with a love for unorthodox teaching styles and an ambivalence toward shoes, Nahla Ake is the Captain of the USS Athena and, by extension, Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. She’s lived a long, long, long life: one character compares her personnel files to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, so she’s got the experience to tackle (almost) any problem her kids throw at her. Theoretically, anyway. Her first year as Chancellor was a messy one, with pirate attacks, hostage negotiations, and perpetual breaches of protocol. Season 1 proved Nahla is a great teacher, but she never shied away from her checkered past, either. Again, she’s lived long enough to perform as many great deeds as she has grave mistakes, and in Season 2, we’ll likely see even more of that catch up with her. And we will certainly meet her father, Nyk Ake (Bill Nighy).
Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta)
Speaking of grave mistakes... meet Caleb Mir. The disillusioned cadet certainly starts off as a part of Nahla’s past that she’d rather forget. When Caleb was a child living on the Federation outpost of Pikaru, his mother Anisha was shipped off to a penal colony as punishment for an otherwise minor crime. Nahla was the one who carried out the sentence — and though she tried to care for Caleb, he escaped her supervision and spent the next 15 years on his own, hopping from one backworld prison to the next. He eventually enrolls in Starfleet Academy because it’s the only way to get his latest sentence commuted; he’s got no love for the Federation after separating him from his mom, but across Starfleet Academy’s first season, he learns to appreciate the school, and even Nahla, for unlocking his latent potential.
Tarima Sadal (Zoë Steiner)
Tarima is to Starfleet Academy what Jean Grey was to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. She hails from Betazed, the planet that produces telepathic humanoids. But her psychic powers are far stronger than we’ve seen in any other Betazoid before: she has to wear an inhibitor that keeps her from injuring others and herself. In her first year at the Academy, Tarima routinely struggled to keep her emotions and powers in check — her blossoming romance with Caleb only made matters more complex. She initially joined the War College (the more disciplined branch of the Academy) in an effort to learn more control, but after an intense use of her powers, she transferred to Starfleet Academy proper, trusting her relationships to help guide her emotions.
Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard)
The daughter of a Starfleet Admiral, Genesis understands the burden of legacy. Having grown up on starships, learning Starfleet protocol firsthand, she’s naturally at the top of her class by the time she enrolls at the Academy. Capable as she is, though, Genesis is driven by an acute fear of inadequacy. Her pre-Academy teachers mentioned as much in her letters of recommendation, a fact she goes to great lengths to hide in Season 1. As the school’s resident nepo baby, she’s working hard to prove — not just to her peers, but to herself — that she belongs in Starfleet on her own merit. It’s not really a spoiler to say that she more than earns her place, but what’s great about this character is that she does it on her own terms.
Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané)
Jay-Den is not your average Klingon. He’s studying medicine at the Academy, a far cry from anyone’s expectations, from his family to the Athena’s Jem’Hadar-Klingon First Officer, Lura Thok. Jay-Den, like so many of the kids in Starfleet Academy, is struggling to reconcile his past — his parents’ disapproval, or his brother’s dying wishes — with the future he’s always been afraid to want. By the end of Season 1, he’s found his voice, transforming from a timid pre-med student into one of the bravest freshmen on the Athena.
Darem Reymi (George Hawkins)
There are new species joining Starfleet all the time, and Darem is one of the latest. He may look human, but he’s actually Khionian, a semi-aquatic species that can alter their form at will. He’s also technically royalty — or, at least, engaged to royalty. His freshman year nearly comes to a premature end when he’s called to wed Kaira (Jaelynn Thora Brooks), the heir to the Khionian throne. He’s also an ace at pretty much everything, which naturally makes him pretty cocky. But Darem contains surprising hidden depths, depths that the brutal school year and all its misadventures eventually bring to the surface.
SAM (Kerrice Brooks)
Every Star Trek series has the Outsider Learning to Be Human, from the Original Series’ Spock to The Next Generation’s Data. SAM is Starfleet Academy’s. She’s a hologram who hails from a planet full of holograms, and they’re all utterly suspicious of humanity because, long ago, they were programmed to serve organics. SAM attends Starfleet Academy to determine whether her people (called “photonics”) can finally integrate with organic society. She learns to embrace humanity along the way, unpacking trauma, simulating a drunk night out, and discovering a love of “ancient Earth plays” like Our Town (yes, really) in her freshman year.
Ocam Sadal (Romeo Carere)
Tarima didn’t come to Starfleet Academy alone: her older brother Ocam enrolled at the same time. We don’t see a whole lot of him in Starfleet Academy’s first season, but we do know that he — alongside Tarima — was the leader of the Betazed Youth Delegation before heading off to school. He and Tarima were instrumental in the negotiations to bring Betazed back to the Federation, but at the Academy, we mostly just hear from Ocam when he’s at the center of a prank or sticking up for Tarima. Hopefully he gets to come into his own more in Season 2.
The Doctor (Robert Picardo)
One of a handful of legacy characters from older Star Trek shows, The Doctor is probably the second-oldest character in Starfleet Academy after Captain Ake. He served as an Emergency Medical Hologram in Voyager, which precedes Starfleet Academy by around 900 years. Though he doesn’t technically have any need to age, he’s gradually altered his appearance over the centuries to reflect his experience. When we meet him again in Starfleet Academy, he’s now the chief medical officer of the Athena, the Academy’s resident xenobiology teacher, and a reluctant mentor to SAM. Their relationship forces a new perspective in the relationship between photonic beings: the Doctor is technically immortal, and as such has watched everyone he once cared for pass away. Across Season 1, his bond with SAM forces him to open back up in beautiful ways, forging one of the show’s most pleasant surprises.
Lura Thok (Gina Yashere)
On paper, it’d make more sense to see Lura Thok serving the War College and not regular old Starfleet Academy. Captain Ake’s brusque First Officer is the epitome of battle-ready: born of a Klingon mother and a Jem’Hadar father, you’d be hard pressed to find an officer more militant. Cadet Master Thok pushed her students hard in Season 1, but she’s not without a soft side, either — mostly brought out by her partner, Jett Reno — and we’ll get both sides of that coin when Starfleet Academy returns for Season 2.
Jett Reno (Tig Notaro)
Trek fans who tuned in to Discovery would have been pleasantly surprised to see Jett Reno on the bridge of a different ship. As we learn in Starfleet Academy, she gave up her post on the USS Discovery to be closer to her partner, Lura Thok. Her style as an instructor is more than a little withering, but it really just means she cares. At any rate, it’s better than whatever form of “tough love” Cadet Master Thok uses on any given day.
Laytha Sadal (Rosemarie DeWitt)
In Starfleet Academy Season 2, the Athena welcomes the First Lady of Betazed. At this year’s New York Comic-Con, co-showrunner Noga Landau teased a “classic Betazoid mom visit” to come, with Tarima and Ocam’s mother, Laytha, paying the Academy a visit. We don’t know much about her at this point — but given Landau’s point of comparison, she’ll probably find some way to mortify her children, whether it’s with her backwards view of the universe or just general diva-dom.
Nyk Ake (Bill Nighy)
The parental interruptions don’t stop with Laytha, either: Captain Ake’s own father, Nyk, is also heading to the Athena. The character, played by the legendary Bill Nighy, is full Lanthanite, which means he’s lived even longer than his daughter. First-look images tease an eccentric new addition to the series: one can only imagine the kind of stories he’ll be sharing with the crew and their students.
