'Star Trek' star Paul Giamatti says THIS role of his deserves an award

Paul Giamatti recently opened up about his shocking inclusion in the latest Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

For those unaware, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which is the 12th Star Trek series, was released on January 15, 2026, on Paramount+.

In a talk with PEOPLE magazine, Giamatti, who has been vocal about his dream to play a Klingon on Star Trek, a role he wanted to play since his youth, said, “I didn't actually think I'd ever actually get a call!”

He added, “I made no secret about the fact that I loved the show, but I never thought it would actually be something that would happen… It's a top experience for me.”

“I don't know that much else can top this. I still kind of can't believe that I got to do it,” the 58-year-old American actor quipped.

Notably, Giamatti’s roles in films like The Holdovers, Sideways, 12 Years a Slave and television shows such as Black Mirror, Billions, Downton Abbey, and John Adams have earned him several accolades.

He confessed that he thinks his portrayal of the half- Klingon pirate Nus Brake in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy also deserves an award.

“I don't see it as any sort of differentiation between higher or lower culture or anything like that — it's all the same. I think it's great, Star Trek: it's smart, it's good stuff and it's good writing and it's good stories, and so that's all that matters,” Paul Giamatti explained.