Trek history two-for-one: on August 4th, 1968, there were two notable events. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley and Walter Koenig were called to Paramount Studios for a costume test for the spacesuits for Star Trek: The Original Series’ episode “The Tholian Web”...and future Trek guest star Daniel Dae Kim was born in Busan, South Korea.

Kim moved to the United States when he was just a year old, growing up in New York City, Easton, Pennsylvania and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Haverford College in 1990, with double bachelor’s degrees in theater and political science, then went on to earn an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program in 1996.

Kim has guest starred in a number of television programs, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Charmed, The Shield, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue and ER. He was a regular on the Babylon 5 spin-off Crusade and had recurring roles on 24 and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel. He was also a regular cast member on the J. J. Abrams series Lost from 2004 to 2010.

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Blink Of An Eye”, Kim played Pilot First Rank Gotana-Retz, a Kelmane astronaut who was part of a mission sent to investigate the ancient “Sky Ship” that was revered by his people. (Spoiler alert: it was the Voyager.) He also portrayed Corporal D. Chang in three episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. Chang was a MACO soldier assigned to the Enterprise NX-01 when they entered the Delta Expanse in search of the Xindi weapon being built to destroy Earth.

Please join us here at Daily Star Trek News in wishing Daniel Dae Kim a happy 53rd birthday.