Olatunde Osunsanmi's new TV movie "Star Trek: Section 31" is strangely retro in its setting, with a feel reminiscent of delightfully flashy 1980s B-movies like Peter Manougyan's low-budget time-traveller The Eliminators . The main character is Empress Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeo), the genocidal tyrant of the Mirror Universe, and she is reported to be part of Section 31, an unethical Starfleet black ops organization who handles dangerous secret missions.

The film's cast, however, is rounded out by a rogue's gallery of various aliens and specialists, each hired to aid the Empress in the vital mission of obtaining a doomsday device. There is the Quasi Shapeshifter (Sam Richardson)a not-so-bright cyborg bruiser named Fuzz (Sven Ruygrok), a microscopic organism named Zeph who controls a human-sized robot (Robert Kazinski), an ultra-seductive Deltan named Mele (Humberly Gonzalez), and Rachel Garrett (Casey Rolle), an officer of Starfleet with a straight thread who is there to make sure killing is kept to a minimum.

Also present is Alok Sahar, who functions as an intermediary from Section 31, who reached out to Georgiou in the first place. Alok is tough, taciturn, and implies that serving Section 31 might give the Empress a chance to atone for some of her many, many crimes. He is, in short, the Company Man.

Alok is played by Omari Hardwick, an actor from Georgia who has been working professionally in film and TV since the early 2000s. He has also been involved in theater projects throughout Los Angeles for many years and occasionally participates in poetry slams. Hardwick has also appeared in many high-profile feature films, working with many well-known directors along the way. He even appeared in possibly the best movie of 2018, so you've probably seen his face before.

Hardwick began his film career with a little-known 2002 indie film called Circles, but soon after broke into the mainstream with a role in the 2005 hit comedy Beauty Shop starring Queen Latifah. His intensity and pliability as an actor saw him immediately cast in many other major studio projects, including the war thriller The Guardian and the Dwayne Johnson vehicle Gridiron Gang, both of which were released in 2006. Then in 2008, he was cast as Commander Hags in Spike Lee's war epic Miracle at St. Anne's.

Alternatively, some might recognize Hardwick from his role as a rough-and-tumble cop in the violent superhero flick Kick-Ass or his supporting turn in the 2010 film version of The A-Team, where he played Chopshop Jay . Hardwick also worked with Tyler Perry on the 2010 drama For Colored Girls, which earned him a Black Reel Award nomination. Indeed, Hardwick has been prolific for quite some time now, appearing in multiple films and TV shows each year. In 2018 alone, Hardwick appeared in the rom-com Nobody's Fool, and starred in and served as an executive producer on the romantic drama A Boy. A Girl. A Dream.” and co-hosted Iraq War Veteran Drama Sergeant Will Gardner. On top of all that, he played the mysterious Mr. ______ in Boots Riley's surreal masterpiece Sorry to Bother You (a film in which he had to wear a bowler hat and an eyepatch, as seen above).

Just prior to Section 31, Hardwick starred in the Jennifer Lopez vehicle The Mother and worked with Zack Snyder on Zombie action-horror mishmash Army of the Dead. He was really around. On TV, Hardwick may be further recognized from his starring role in the short-lived 2006 series Saved or all 20 episodes of Dark Blue. He's even been in music videos for Ruff Endz, Floetry, Nasty C, Estelle and Jay-Z, and has recorded his own singles with artists like 50 Cent.

Most notably, Hardwick played James "Ghost" St. Patrick, the main character on the six-season Starz TV series Power (which ran from 2014 to 2020). And this is not even his entire career. If Hardwick looks familiar, it's because he's been pretty much everywhere for the past 20 years. Star Trek is just another feather in his cap.

Star Trek: Section 31 begins airing on January 24, 2025, on Paramount+.