The creator and star of Netflix’s The OA has been cast in a key role in Paramount+’s upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Brit Marling, who starred as Prairie Johnson in The OA, is taking over a Star Trek role once held by the late Majel Barrett.
Marling is set to voice the ship’s computer in Starfleet Academy when the series premieres next year, according to Collider. Marling will provide the voice of the computer aboard the U.S.S. Athena, which also serves as the titular Starfleet Academy in the series. Barrett, who was married to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, voiced the ship’s computer in Star Trek as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, and the TNG movies. Barrett also made a posthumous cameo in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 in 2023.
Marling co-created Netflix’s The OA, which ran from 2016 to 2019, and wrote 10 episodes of the show in addition to starring in it. She also co-created the mini-series A Murder at the End of the World, which she starred in along with Emma Corrin, Clive Owen, and Harris Dickinson. Next up for Marling is Uncanny Valley, which she wrote with Natasha Lyonne. She will star in the film alongside Lyonne, who directed.
Starfleet Academy will focus on the first class at San Francisco’s Starfleet Academy in 100 years and takes place in the same timeline as the last three seasons of Star Trek Discovery. It stars Holly Hunter as Captain Nahla Ake, chancellor of the academy, and features a cast that includes Robert Picardo, Tig Notaro, Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané, Kerrice Brooks, and George Hawkins. Additionally, the cast includes Bella Shepard and Zoë Steiner. Oded Fehr, Mary Wiseman, Tatiana Maslany, Gina Yashere, and Paul Giamatti are also set to be featured in the series as guest stars.
Another Star Will Lend Their Voice to the New Trek Series
Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson/the OA in a straight jacket from the Netflix series The OAImage via Netflix
In October, at New York Comic-Con, it was revealed that late-night TV host Stephen Colbert would also be lending his voice to Starfleet Academy. He will be the voice of the Digital Dean of Students on the show. “I am honored to announce that my beautiful voice will be joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as the digital dean of students, where I’ll get to announce things like, ‘Attention Ensign Krebs, your Talaxian fur fly has exited the replicator and is now mating with itself. Please report to Science Lab 1 immediately. Children are watching,” he said.
In October 2025, Starfleet Academy co-creators and co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau talked about why it took nearly 60 years for a show like theirs to be made. “It’s hard to come up with circumstances and buy-in where you can still have Star Trek adventures with real stakes and real peril, but it’s also a school. It’s really important that viewers know that these kids actually go on real Star Trek missions and there is real Star Trek peril and complex situations that they have to navigate,” Landau said.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will premiere on Paramount+ on Jan. 15, 2026.
- Release Date
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May 24, 2024
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Alex Kurtzman, Noga Landau
- Directors
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Alex Kurtzman
- Writers
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Gaia Violo, Gene Roddenberry
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Karim Diane
Jay-Den Kraag
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Kerrice Brooks
Series Acclimation Mil ‘Sam’