(written from a Production point of view)
David Cronenberg (born 15 March 1943; age 81) is a Canadian director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actor, who appeared as Kovich in the third through fifth seasons of Star Trek: Discovery.
Cronenberg was approached for the role by showrunner Alex Kurtzman, who's a fan of his work. He said he was also "cheap and (as a Toronto native) available". As a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, Cronenberg was delighted to be offered a part on the franchise. [1]
Considered to be an auteur of the horror genre, and pioneer of the "body horror" subgenre, Cronenberg's body of work includes films such as The Brood (1979, starring Samantha Eggar and featuring Felix Silla), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), The Dead Zone (1983, with Anthony Zerbe and Hélène Udy), The Fly (1986, with Michael Copeman), Dead Ringers (1988, starring Geneviève Bujold), Naked Lunch (1991, starring Peter Weller), Crash (1996), Existenz (1999, with Callum Keith Rennie and Stephanie Belding), A History of Violence (2005, with Stephen McHattie and Greg Bryk), Eastern Promises (2007), A Dangerous Method (2011), Cosmopolis (2012, with Milton Barnes and Saad Siddiqui), Crimes of the Future (2022), and The Shroud (2024).
As an actor he has also had cameo roles in a number of his own films, as well as appearing in films such as Nightbreed (1990), To Die For (1995, with Kurtwood Smith and Conrad Coates), Extreme Measures (1996, with Paul Guilfoyle and Tara Rosling), Jason X (2001), Clifton Hill (2019), and Falling (2020, with Noah Davis), and TV series like Alias (with Greg Grunberg, Melissa George, and Merrin Dungey, created by J.J. Abrams, executive produced by Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman), Alias Grace (with Jonathan Goad, Jonathan Koensgen, Alden Adair, and Ana Shepherd), and Slasher.