(written from a Production point of view)
Marcus Young (born 1 October 1972; age 51) is a stuntman, martial artist, actor, and stunt coordinator who performed stunts as burly Starfleet cadet in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. Later, Young worked as a fight choreographer on Star Trek Into Darkness, especially for the fight scene between Spock and John Harrison on the garbage barge. He was briefly interviewed for the Star Trek Into Darkness (Blu-ray) special feature "Brawl by the Bay".
Young previously performed stunts for two of J.J. Abrams' productions; the television series Alias and the action sequel Mission: Impossible III (2006).
Young, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, started his career as a stunt fighter in the late '90s with appearances in the action films Bloodsport III (1996, with John Rhys-Davies, Sidney Liufau, and Scott McElroy), Sworn to Justice (1997, with Brad Dourif, Walter Koenig, and Max Daniels), L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach (1998, with Cristian Letelier), Champions (1998, with Jeff Wolfe), and Better Never Than Late (1999). He performed stunts in the thriller True Vengeance (1997, along with Scott McElroy), the action film Recoil (1998, with Thomas Kopache, Robin Curtis, and stunts by Noby Arden, Bobby Burns, Erik Cord, Rosine "Ace" Hatem, Al Jones, and Spiro Razatos), and the science fiction drama Interceptors (1999, with Brad Dourif and stunts by Lauro Chartrand).
Young served as main stunt double for actor Bruce Locke in the fantasy action series Mortal Kombat: Conquest (1998-1999), which starred Kristanna Loken and stunts by Dana Hee, Christopher Leps, and Boni Yanagisawa. Other television series he worked on include Walker, Texas Ranger, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000), V.I.P. (2000, with Michael Bailey Smith and stunts by Joni Avery and Darlene Ava Williams), Angel, The Invisible Man (2000, with Jeremy Roberts, Mike Massa, and Denney Pierce), The District, 24, She Spies, Birds of Prey (2002, starring Dina Meyer and Ian Abercrombie), and Threat Matrix.
Further stunt performancs include the thriller The Ghost (2001, with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), the 2001 ABC World Stunt Awards (2001), the comedy sequel Scary Movie 2 (2001, with stunts by Geneviere Anderson, LaFaye Baker, Mike Gunther, and Chris Palermo), John Carpenter's horror film Ghosts of Mars (2001), Sam Raimi's superhero movies Spider-Man (2002) and its sequel Spider-Man 2 (2004), John Woo's war drama Windtalkers (2002), the superhero movie Daredevil (2003), the science fiction sequel The Matrix Reloaded (2003), the horror film Underworld (2003, with Kevin Grevioux and Scott McElroy), and the drama The Last Samurai (2003, written by John Logan).
Behind the camera, Young served as fight choreographer and stunt coordinator on films such as Rob Bowman's fantasy film Elektra (2005, with stunts by Shauna Duggins), the action sequel xXx: State of the Union (2005), the documentary Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D (2005, with Scott Wilder, Neal McDonough, and stunts by Xuyen Valdivia and Denney Pierce), the action film Adventures of Johnny Tao (2007, with Ilram Choi, Bridgett Riley, and stunts by Mike Gunther and Dennis Keiffer), and several episodes of the television series Fallen (2007).
Other projects he worked on are the fantasy thriller Constantine (2005), the science fiction film Serenity (2005, with stunts by Steve Blalock, Edward Conna, Tommy J. Huff, Heidi Moneymaker, Mike Mukatis, Tim Sitarz, and Kofi Yiadom), the television series Threshold (2005, starring Brent Spiner), the action film Domino (2005), the science fiction film Ultraviolet (2006), Wolfgang Petersen's action film Poseidon (2006), Gore Verbinski's fantasy sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007, with stunts by Tom Morga), and the action comedy Balls of Fury (2007).
Young was part of the stunt crews which were nominated for a Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Fight in The Matrix Reloaded (2004) and for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2008). In 2009 he won a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series for Heroes and shared this award with fellow Trek performers Robert Alonzo, Austin Priester, Mark Riccardi, Pat Romano, Spike Silver, Erik Stabenau, Nancy Thurston, Xuyen Valdivia, Mark Aaron Wagner, and Horace Knight, Jr..
More recent projects Young performed stunts in are the thriller Pistol Whipped (2008, with Renee Goldsberry and stunts by Fernando Chien, Henry Kingi, Jr., and Lin Oeding), the comedy The Onion Movie (2008), Ben Stiller's action comedy Tropic Thunder (2008), the television series Leverage (2009, with Chase Kim, Mark Sheppard, and Ben Bray), the short fantasy film Tea and Remembrance (2009, with Robert Alonzo, Shauna Duggins, Yoshio Iizuka, James Lew, Jeff Pruitt, Xuyen Valdivia, and Jeff Wolfe), on which he also served as camera operator, and an episode of Agent Carter (2015, working with Denney Pierce, Mike Massa, and Kimberly Murphy).