On October 20, 1977, actor Sam Witwer was born. Witwer played a Xindi-Arboreal Technician (aka Sloth #3) in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Shipment,” but his involvement in Trek goes deeper than that. More on that in a moment.

Witwer, having grown up in a small suburb outside of Chicago, began his career in a Chicago Bulls commercial. He soon moved on to speaking roles in episodes of ER, JAG and Angel. Eventually, he landed the role of “Crashdown” in the Battlestar Galactica reboot, developed by Trek alum Ronald D. Moore. He went on to guest starring roles in Dexter, Bones and It’s Always Sunny in Philladelphia before joining the cast of Smallville for 12 season 8 episodes as Davis Bloome/Doomsday. Witwer was nominated for a Best Actor Canadian Screen Award for his role as Aidan Waite in the series Being Human.

Witwer’s vocal talents earned him an Emmy nomination when he voiced Darth Maul in that other Star franchise’s series The Clone Wars and he reprised the role, as well as voicing Emperor Palpatine, in Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out and the series Star Wars Rebels. He has also been heard in a number of video games, including a slew of Star Wars games, Soulcaliber IV and Star Trek Online, in which he voiced Tenavik, the Klingon monk first seen, as played by Kenneth Mitchell, in the Star Trek: Discovery episode “Through the Valley of Shadows.”

Witwer has been a lifelong fan of Star Trek. He has tweeted his support of a remastered edition of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and he is listed as a contributor for the documentary focusing on that series, What We Left Behind. He also leant his voice to an episode of the fan-made series Star Trek: New Voyages, albeit using the pseudonym of Simon Judas Raye. In the episode “In Harm’s Way,” which features a cornucopia of past Trek actors, Witwer can be heard as the voice of The Guardian of Forever. 

Please join us in wishing Sam Witwer a very happy 44th birthday.