Timothy Darrell Russ (born June 22, 1956) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, and musician. He is best known for his roles on Star Trek: Voyager as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok and Samantha Who? as Frank the doorman.
Russ was born in Washington, D.C. to a state government employee mother and an Air Force officer father.
Russ has been extensively 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. Russ originally screen-tested for the role of Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation before gaining the role of Tuvok.
While many Trek actors claim to have had little interest in the franchise before they signed on for their role, Russ went into Voyager as a dedicated Trekkie with an extensive knowledge of Vulcan lore. In various interviews, the show's writers have described their occasional clashes with Russ over realistic behavior for a Vulcan, with Russ typically insisting on following continuity.
Aside from Tuvok, Russ has played the following roles in Trek:
Russ's 1994 appearance on the Enterprise-B in Generations can cause viewer confusion, as it was later established in the Voyager episode "Flashback" that Russ's character Tuvok was a serving Starfleet Ensign on the USS Excelsior during the events of the previous film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which predated the Enterprise-B. As the Enterprise-B officer was portrayed with human ears it cannot be the early Tuvok, therefore the possibility arises of Tuvok having had a serving human lookalike in Starfleet.
As a result of his multiple character appearances, Russ is one of only two actors to have appeared with 4 out of 5 captains of the Star Trek series, the other being Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker).
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 computer games Star Trek: Voyager: Elite Force and Star Trek: Elite Force II; and for the 2006 machinima animated feature film Borg War. Russ is also 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.
Russ currently appears as Frank, a sarcastic doorman in Christina Applegate's ABC comedy, Samantha Who?, as well as Principal Ted Franklin in Nickelodeon's show iCarly
Russ's band went head-to-head in a competition with Howard Stern's band the Losers on an episode of Stern's radio show. The judges ultimately crowned Stern's band the winners.
The music video for the song "Kushangaza" can be seen as part of the Special Features for season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager - highlight part of the ship on page 3 of the features menu.
Elite Force I & II
Dragon Age
LA Law
