Who Is Sean Connolly Affleck on ‘Star Trek: Discovery’?

If you watched the Star Trek: Discovery premiere, then one name in particular might have caught your eye in the credits: Sean Connolly Affleck. Who is he and what role did he play? Here are the details. Warning: This has spoilers for the ending of Discovery‘s Season 2 premiere. 

Sean Connolly Affleck played Lt. Evan Connolly in the Star Trek: Discovery episode “Brother” that aired on January 17. This is his only episode because he also just happens to be the Science Officer from Enterprise who died on the away mission.

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Yes, the actor with the eye-catching name played the science officer whose death destroyed the red shirt trope. Many viewers were expecting the red shirt on the away mission to die, not Connelly. Connelly’s character was quickly being established. He was the science officer that showed up instead of Spock, whom Burnham was expecting to see beam on board. He had a sarcastic personality and was already trading insults and jokes with Burnham. But then he got a little too self-confident and crashed into an asteroid.

And that was the ending of the engaging character. But Affleck did a lot with his short screen time and made a lasting impression.

As far as the actor’s background, Affleck is an actor and a writer from Canada. (So no, he doesn’t appear to be related to Ben Affleck, at least not according to any biographies online.) He’s also not related to Jennifer Connelly (her last name is spelled differently.)

Affleck’s other credits include Murdoch Mysteries (Samuel Bloom for four episodes), The Expanse (Riot MP), Taken TV series, Salvation (Nelson for two episodes), Reign (Porter, one episode), Saving Hope (Eric, one episode), and more. You can learn more about him on his website, although it hasn’t been updated recently.

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Here’s his acting reel from 2013:

I’m disappointed we won’t see him in any more episodes. What did you think about his appearance on the show?