Paul Giamatti On Playing Nus Braka in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner Paul Giamatti hypes up the damage his villain will cause in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premieres January 15, 2026, on Paramount+.

Paul Giamatti plays Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1’s recurring villain, Nus Braka. Giamatti joins Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s series lead, Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter, who plays Captain Nahla Ake, the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy, and an old nemesis of Nus Braka’s.

ScreenRant’s Liam Crowley interviewed Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s cast and executive producers at New York Comic Con, where Paul Giamatti dropped some intel on why he was excited to play Nus Braka, a half-Klingon/half-Tellarite big bad. The Emmy winner also gives some background on how Nus Braka plans “to disrupt this world” and “rip it apart.” Read Paul’s quote below:

Paul Giamatti: I’m a baddie. They came to me with a bad guy. And I was like, well, that’s the best to be a Star Trek villain. Couldn’t be better. I’m half Klingon, half Tellarite. And I was very excited to be half Tellarite. Because as a kid, I liked them, and they’re this kind of argumentative, obnoxious pig people. And I was like, ‘That’s me, man, I want to do that’. So it was great.

I mean, I get to be an alien, I get to be a bad guy. I get to come in and disrupt this world. He’s everything that Starfleet is not, he’s the opposite of all of it, and he wants to rip it apart. And so it’s great. It was a fun character to play.

Why Paul Giamatti’s Nus Braka Wants To Tear Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Apart

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s full trailer premiered at New York Comic Con, which gave some context as to what Nus Braka’s grudge is against the Academy. 15 years in the past, Braka kidnaps the mother of Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta), played by Tatiana Maslany.

As a young adult, Caleb is recruited for Starfleet Academy by Captain Nahla Ake, with the promise of helping Mir find his mother. This brings Nus Braka back into the light, looking to stop Ake and even fight Caleb, to keep them from foiling his wider scheme against the United Federation of Planets.

Many mysteries surround Nus Braka in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, but Paul Giamatti is creating a major league Star Trek villain who may be ranked among the franchise’s best, like Khan (Ricardo Montalaban), the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), and Vadic (Amanda Plummer).

Nus Braka’s combination of being a Klingon-Tellarite hybrid also makes him unique in Star Trek, as he’s the first known product of a union between those classic Star Trek alien species.

Our Take On Paul Giamatti’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Villain

Paul Giamatti grew up a Star Trek fan and often spoke about his desire to play a Klingon before he was cast in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Nus Braka was conceived as a mix of a Klingon and Tellarite lets Paul play his two favorite classic Star Trek aliens combined, and is tailor-made for the Emmy winner.

The best Star Trek villains are among the franchise’s most memorable characters, and an A-list, award-winning movie star like Paul Giamatti is a casting coup for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, along with Oscar winner Holly Hunter. Starfleet Academy will unleash Paul Giamatti to chew the scenery as Nus Braka.

It’s safe to expect Paul Giamatti to deliver one of the great villains and chaos-bringers in Star Trek, especially of the Paramount+ era, in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1.