10 Actors Who Should Be In Star Trek
3. Hannah Waddingham
Hannah Waddingham is a particular favourite here at TrekCulture. If you've seen her speaking French, rocking out with an air guitar, dazzling with her impressive vocal range, being the best guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race, or starting her Emmy acceptance speech with "Jesus Christ on a bike!" you'll know why!
From a family of opera singers, Waddingham is an accomplished West End performer in her own right, having starred in shows such as Spamalot and The Wizard of Oz. Of course, Waddingham rocketed to global fame with the role of Rebecca Welton in the much lauded Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso. At first more the villain of the piece as new owner of AFC Richmond, Rebecca Welton goes through quite the journey from saboteur to full-on supporter of the club, of Ted, and of herself as a "boss ass bitch".
TrekCulture's own Ellie Littlechild, who chose Waddingham for this list, drew a compelling and pertinent parallel between Welton and Captain Janeway as two of her favourite characters. Ellie noted that both are women of a certain age in positions of power, driven by secret vulnerabilities which become manifest at times, and at others, not, allowing them to evolve as characters. Indeed, Waddingham would make a fine addition to Star Trek, and it's certainly no coincidence that we've merged her with Janeway in the thumbnail for this entry. To quote Ellie once more, "she'd also make a badass Romulan villain!"
A Star Trek role for Waddingham seems practically pre-destined, in fact. She is good friends with Todd Stashwick and Terry Matalas from her time as a baddie on 12 Monkeys (Stashwick even suggested her for the part in Ted Lasso), and on the day we finalised the names for this list, Waddingham tweeted "ENGAGE!!!" to a shot of Captain Picard.