Wilson Cruz

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

Wilson Cruz
Birth name:	Wilson Echevarría
Date of birth:	27 December 1973
Place of birth:	Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Awards for Trek:	Saturn Award nominee
Roles:	Actor
Character(s):	Hugh Culber; Additional characters

Wilson Cruz (born 27 December 1973; age 50) is the American actor who portrays Doctor Hugh Culber in Star Trek: Discovery. He appeared as a recurring guest star in the first season, and was promoted to regular cast member from the second season onwards.

He shared a dance with a pre-teen Mary Chieffo at a wedding, since he is a good friend of Chieffo's mother Beth. (AT: "Despite Yourself")

Cruz was the featured studio guest in the fourth episode of The Ready Room, discussing his character's resurrection from the grave in season two of the series.

Career

Born in New York City with Puerto Rican heritage, he started his acting career by starring in the TV series My So-Called Life in 1994-1995, which also featured Paul Dooley as a recurring guest star. Cruz made his film debut in the 1995 biopic Nixon, surrounded by fellow alumni Robert Beltran, Bill Bolender, Richard Fancy, Annette Helde, Michelle Krusiec, Saul Rubinek, and Paul Sorvino. Cruz followed with the 1996 telefilm On Seventh Avenue, with Stephen Collins, Ronald Guttman, Josh Pais, and Anthony Zerbe. That year Cruz costarred in the sex comedy Johns, with Tony Epper. In 2005, Cruz appeared in Bam Bam & Celeste with John Cho. In 2003, he starred in the semi-biographical crime drama, Party Monster along with Mia Kirshner. 2006 had Cruz in the comedy Coffee Date, costarring Leigh Taylor-Young. None of Cruz's later films made as much of a dent in the box office like his debut, but then Cruz was cast in the hit 2009 film He's Just Not That Into You, joined by Googy Gress and Cristine Rose.

More recently, he appeared in episodes of Shameless (2016), 13 Reasons Why, and Doubt (both 2017). That year, he also produced and appeared in a short movie called Billy's Blowjobs.

Star Trek appearances

Cruz appeared as Culber in

• DIS:
  • "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry" (Season 1)
  • "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"
  • "What's Past Is Prologue" (archive footage)
  • "Brother" (Season 2)
  • "Saints of Imperfection"
  • "The Sound of Thunder"
  • "If Memory Serves"
  • "The Red Angel"
  • "Perpetual Infinity"
  • "Through the Valley of Shadows"
  • "Such Sweet Sorrow"
  • "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2"
  • "Far From Home" (Season 3)
  • "Forget Me Not"
  • "Die Trying"
  • "Scavengers"
  • "The Sanctuary"
  • "Terra Firma, Part 1"
  • "Terra Firma, Part 2"
  • "Su'Kal"
  • "That Hope Is You, Part 2"
  • "Kobayashi Maru" (Season 4)
  • "Anomaly (DIS)"
  • "Choose to Live"
  • "All Is Possible"
  • "The Examples"
  • "Stormy Weather"
  • "...But to Connect"
  • "All In"
  • "Rubicon"
  • "The Galactic Barrier"
  • "Rosetta"
  • "Species Ten-C"
  • "Coming Home"

Additional characters

Hallucination of Culber
DIS: "Vaulting Ambition"

Hugh Culber (mirror)
DIS: "Terra Firma, Part 1", "Terra Firma, Part 2"

Jinaal Bix inhabiting Culber's form
DIS: "Jinaal"

Additional appearances

• AT:
  • "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"
  • "Despite Yourself"
• TRR:
  • "Saints of Imperfection"
  • "Forget Me Not"

External links

• Wilson Cruz at StarTrek.com
• Wilson Cruz at the Internet Movie Database
• Wilson Cruz at Wikipedia