Shazad Latif

Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)

Shazad Latif
Birth name:	Shazad Khaliq Iqbal
Date of birth:	8 July 1988
Place of birth:	London, England, UK
Roles:	Series Regular
Character(s):	Ash Tyler (primary character; see additional characters for more)

Shazad Latif (born 8 July 1988; age 33) is the British actor who played Ash Tyler in the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Discovery.

Latif also portrayed the Klingon Voq, for which, prior to the episode "The Wolf Inside", he was credited under the name Javid Iqbal, since using his real name in relation to this character would likely have revealed information intended to be a major plot twist.

Originally, CBS announced in December 2016 that Latif was to portray the Klingon Kol, a protégé of T'Kuvma. [1] However, in April 2017, it was stated that Latif would instead play Tyler, [2] while T'Kuvma's protégé was renamed Voq (who would, ultimately, still be played by Latif) and the name Kol was given to a leader of a rival Klingon Great House (portrayed by Kenneth Mitchell). [3]

In disguising his role as Voq, Latif chose his credited name in memory of his deceased father. He noted that the period of maintaining the deception was "a year of keeping up a crazy secret [it] was like being in the CIA." [4]

He appeared, among others, in episodes of Spooks, Black Mirror, Ordinary Lies, Toast of London, and Penny Dreadful. He also appeared in films such as The Man Who Knew Infinity and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Among his upcoming projects are The Commuter and the TV series Still Star-Crossed.

Appearances as Ash Tyler

• DIS:
  • "Choose Your Pain"
  • "Lethe"
  • "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"
  • "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"
  • "Into the Forest I Go"
  • "Despite Yourself"
  • "The Wolf Inside"
  • "Vaulting Ambition"
  • "The War Without, The War Within"
  • "Will You Take My Hand?"
  • "Point of Light"
  • "Saints of Imperfection"
  • "The Sound of Thunder"
  • "Light and Shadows"
  • "If Memory Serves"
  • "The Red Angel"
  • "Perpetual Infinity"
  • "Through the Valley of Shadows"
  • "Such Sweet Sorrow"
  • "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2"

Additional characters

Voq
DIS: "The Vulcan Hello", "Battle at the Binary Stars", "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry"

Voq (mirror)
DIS: "The Wolf Inside"

Ash Tyler
DIS: "Will You Take My Hand?"

External links

• Shazad Latif at Wikipedia
• Shazad Latif at the Internet Movie Database
• Shazad Latif at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
• Shazad Latif at Twitter
• Shazad Latif at Instagram