Tim Russ

Timothy Darrell Russ (born June 22, 1956) is an American actor, musician, screenwriter, director and amateur astronomer. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, Robert Johnson in Crossroads (1986), Casey in East of Hope Street (1998), Frank on Samantha Who?, Principal Franklin on the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly, and D. C. Montana on The Highwaymen (1987–1988). He appeared in The Rookie: Feds (2022) and reprised his role as Captain Tuvok on Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard.

Early life, family and education
Russ was born in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 1956, to a government employee mother and a U.S. Air Force officer father. He spent part of his childhood in Turkey. He attended his senior year of high school at Rome Free Academy, from which he graduated in 1974. He graduated from St. Edward's University with a degree in theater arts. He additionally attended graduate school at Illinois State University where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame.

Acting
In 1985, Russ appeared in The Twilight Zone episode "Kentucky Rye" as Officer #2. He made a brief appearance in the comedy movie Spaceballs as the trooper who shouts "We ain't found shit!" while "combing" the desert with an afro comb. Russ had a prominent role in the Charles Bronson movie Death Wish 4.

Russ has been involved in the Star Trek franchise as a voice and film actor, writer, director, and producer. He played several minor roles before landing the role as the main character Tuvok, a character seen from the first, January 1995 episode "Caretaker" of Star Trek: Voyager. Russ screentested, in 1987, for the role of Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation before gaining the role of Tuvok. Russ went into Voyager as a dedicated Trekkie with an extensive knowledge of Vulcan lore and has played the following roles in the Star Trek universe:


 * Devor, a mercenary hijacking the Enterprise-D disguised as a service engineer in the "Starship Mine" episode of The Next Generation (1993)
 * T'Kar, a Klingon in the Deep Space Nine episode "Invasive Procedures" (1993)
 * A human tactical Lieutenant on the USS Enterprise-B in the film Star Trek Generations (1994).
 * The Mirror Universe counterpart of his Voyager character, Tuvok, who was a member of the Terran Resistance in the Deep Space Nine (1995) episode "Through the Looking Glass".
 * A changeling impersonating Tuvok in Star Trek: Picard season 3.

In 1995, Russ co-wrote the story for the Malibu Comics Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #29 and 30, with Mark Paniccia. Russ performed voice acting roles as Tuvok for the video games Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force and Star Trek: Elite Force II. Russ is the director and one of the stars of the fan series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the first third of which was released in December 2007, with the remaining two-thirds released in 2008.

Russ's character's name D. C. Montana in The Highwayman was a reference to Trek writer D. C. Fontana.

In 1990, he appeared in an episode of Freddy's Nightmares.

Russ directed and co-starred in Star Trek: Renegades, and in both 2013 and 2014 reprised his role as the voice of Tuvok in the massively multiplayer online game Star Trek Online.

Later work
Russ appeared as Frank, a sarcastic doorman in Christina Applegate's comedy Samantha Who? from 2007 to 2009, and appeared for six seasons as Principal Ted Franklin in Nickelodeon's show iCarly. He also portrayed a doctor on an episode of Hannah Montana, "I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak."

Russ won an Emmy Award in 2014 for public service ads he did for the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office on intellectual property theft and cyberbullying.

He played Captain Kells in the 2015 Bethesda Game Studios video game Fallout 4.

Music and astronomy
Russ has been a lifelong musician and a singer. In addition, Russ has been an avid amateur astronomer most of his adult life, and is a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. In 2021 he was among a small group of citizen astronomers who assisted in detection of the asteroid 617 Patroclus in preparation for NASA's Lucy probe. In February 2022, he stated that he owned a 10-inch Dobsonian telescope, an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, and a Unistellar eVscope.