Timothy Darrell "Tim" Russ (born June 22, 1956) is an American actor, film director, screenwriter and musician. He is known for his roles as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, as Frank on Samantha Who?, and as Principal Franklin, a recurring character on the Nickelodeon live-action teen sitcom iCarly.

Biography

Russ was born in Washington, D.C. to a state government employee mother and a U.S. Air Force officer father. He spent part of his childhood in Turkey. During his early life, Tim Russ had many dogs.


Star Trek and other roles
Russ has been extensively involved in the Star Trek franchise, as a voice and film actor, writer, director and producer. He played several minor roles before landing the role as the main character Tuvok. Russ originally screen-tested for the role of Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation before gaining the role of Tuvok.

While many Trek actors claim to have had little interest in the franchise before they signed on for their role, Russ went into Voyager as a dedicated Trekkie with an extensive knowledge of Vulcan lore.

Aside from Tuvok on the Star Trek: Voyager series, Russ has played the following roles in Star Trek:


Devor, a mercenary in the "Starship Mine" episode of The Next Generation (1993)
T'Kar, a Klingon in the Deep Space Nine episode "Invasive Procedures" (1993)
A human tactical Lieutenant on the USS Excelsior in the film Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country (1994) (a character who is actually separate from young Tuvok's presence on the Excelsior in the Voyager episode "Flashback").
The Mirror Universe counterpart of his Voyager character, Tuvok, who was a member of the Terran Resistance in the Deep Space Nine (1995) episode "Through the Looking Glass".

In 1995, Russ co-wrote the story for the Malibu Comics Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #29 and 30, with Mark Paniccia. Russ performed voice acting roles as Tuvok for the computer games Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force and Star Trek: Elite Force II. Russ is also the director and one of the stars of the fan series Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the first third of which was released in December 2007, with the remaining two thirds released in 2008.

He also did a clip of Star Trek Titan for a tour.

Russ's character's name D.C. Montana in The Highwayman was a reference to Trek writer D. C. Fontana.

In 1990 he played a role for Freddy's Nightmares, a television series that was part of the A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise). The episode had multiple quotes and hints suggesting to Star Trek fandom, such as: "Beam me up Scotty," "Captain! The dilithium crystals are running out," and Tim Russ' character being named Picard. This can be considered an early precursor to his extensive Star Trek career.


Later work
Russ most recently appeared as Frank, a sarcastic doorman in Christina Applegate's ABC comedy, Samantha Who? from 2007 to 2009, and currently appears as Principal Ted Franklin in Nickelodeon's show iCarly. He also portrayed a surgeon on an episode of Hannah Montana, "I Am Hannah, Hear Me Croak."


Music

Russ's band went head-to-head in a competition with Howard Stern's band The Losers on an episode of Stern's radio show. The judges ultimately crowned Stern's band the winners.

His band can occasionally be seen playing at the Kibitz Room at Canter's Deli.

The music video for the song "Kushangaza" can be seen as part of the Special Features for season 2 of Star Trek: Voyager - highlight part of the ship on page 3 of the features menu.


Only a Dream in Rio (1998)
Tim Russ (2000)
Kushangaza (2001)
Brave New World (2003)