Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Actor Becomes University Professor

Armin Shimerman, the actor who played Ferengi bartender Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has taken a new role, that of professor of Shakespeare at the University of Southern California.

In addition to his role as Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and as Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Shimerman is an accomplished Shakespearean actor. He announced that he’ll be translating that experience into a new role as professor via Twitter.

“Been absent for awhile. But I do have a proud announcement. I am the newest Shakespeare professor at the University of Southern Calif (USC)!” Shimerman shared.

Shimerman has long been a student of Shakespeare, presenting workshops on the playwright as far back as 1993. He also met his wife during a performance of Love’s Labor’s Lost.

Shimerman’s played Quark through all seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Nine. Like all Ferengi, Quark was obsessed with gaining profit through whatever means necessary, which often set him at odds with Odo, the head of Deep Space Nine’s security, and Sisko, the man in charge of the space station.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) focuses on the 24th-century adventures of Captain Benjamin Sisko on space station Deep Space 9, an outpost situated near the mouth of a stable wormhole on the far reaches of explored space. Although Sisko commands Deep Space 9, the station actually belongs to the inhabitants of nearby Bajor, who requested Starfleet’s protective presence after Bajoran freedom fighters put an end to the brutal Cardassian occupation of their world. Approximately a sixth of the station’s 300 permanent residents are Starfleet personnel; there is also a sizable Bajoran militia presence. The rest of Deep Space 9’s inhabitants are civilians, most of whom work in the station’s Promenade, a kind of indoor marketplace. Initially, Sisko’s mandate from Starfleet was to protect Bajor and the station from any hostiles who ventured into the area. But with the discovery of the nearby wormhole—a shortcut through space that leads directly to the uncharted Gamma quadrant—Sisko’s mandate has expanded exponentially, as the region becomes the gateway to all manner of visitors, both friendly and extremely hostile.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ran from 1993-1999 and was the most heavily serialized of the five Star Trek television series to date.

[H/T] Redshirts Always Die

More Star Trek News: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Star Blew An Audition For A Major Star Trek Movie Role / Kate Mulgrew Had A Rule About Sex On Star Trek: Voyager / Star Trek: Discovery EP Believes Michael Burnham’s Unique Story Will Spark Debate Among Fans / Spider-Man: Homecoming Has A Star Trek Easter Egg