Well most of mine simply came down to people in shows I really like or I've seen in interviews, in the case of Steven Yeun who I loved on Conan. I was going to cast him as Bashir first because I like his genuineness and reminds me a lot of Bashir and also Dick Grayson who people were also fan casting him as. However once I thought of Nazanin Boniadi, from Counterpart, I realised I could make her a female Bashir but I knew I wanted Steven in the main cast because he was the first person I'd thought of and cast when doing this and by that point I was actually on the last person and the only person left was O'Brien, so I thought fuck it, he's going to be asian-irish O'Brien. Maybe he just wouldn't have an accent, kinda like Conan doesn't.
On the others:
- Ben Sisko - Navid Negahban
I loved him from Curb and I wanted to go a different ethnicity on Sisko since I was going to be changing up almost everyone elses anyway. I was going to have Dean Norris first .
- Jake Sisko - Myles Truitt
This I am afraid I just googled young black teen actors and he popped up and I liked his face. But I always wanted a father and son from different ethnicities.
I just liked him a lot on Luke Cage and True Detective and I love the idea of him being a shapeshifter and having Odo's strong sense of justice.
I liked her on Jessica Jones and she reminded me of Kira in temperment
- Miles O'Brien - Steven Yeun
Already mentioned but I love the idea of him just being the everyman character and still having the annual torture O'Brien episode.
- Julian Bashir - Nazanin Boniadi
I wanted someone from Counterpart and I just liked her.
- Garak - Christopher Heyerdahl
He played Todd the Wraith on "Stargate Atlantis" and I liked how he would work with his allies but you couldn't really trust him.
This one was kind of shallow in that I was googling asian actors and she popped up and thought she would be fun as this mischievous dry version of Quark a bit like her Ally McBeal character. I almost cast David Hewlett but I wanted to keep all of the show's main Ferengi as asian as they were from the same family pretty much.
He's an Aussie comedian and I like his fun dumb humour.
I saw him on The Librarians and liked him, but also I originally cast Randall Park as Rom so I wanted to give him an asian son. Also he's an aussie too so I wanted to cast a whole bunch.
She's also an Aussie actress that I've always liked.
I liked him in "The Matrix Reloaded"
He was from "Game of Thrones" and my idea was to reinvent the Klingons as more rugged viking like warriors.
He does Grand Admiral Thrawn and was on Sherlock and I just wanted someone from a similar area as Kristofer Hivju
- Jadzia Dax - Anthony Lemke
This is kind of shallow as I really liked him on "Dark Matter" and was thinking of how to incorporate, and I figured he could embody that same kind of fun, free spirit that Jadzia has. I also wanted to do the reverse of what everyone else might do in making Ezri a guy. It also allowed Worf and Jadzia to be in a gay relationship.
I just think she was great in "Spiderman: Homecoming" as Liz and had that similar vulnerability as Ezri. Also in keeping Ezri female and Bashir is now female allowed for another homosexual relationship.
I love the perversion of everybody's best mate Tom Hanks playing space Hitler and on the surface have him be the friendly Hanks persona like you see on talk shows but underneath you see the true Dukat narcissism.
I originally cast him as Rom which led to me casting all the show's main Ferengi asian but then I thought I could flip it and bring out the similar darker tones that he had in "The Interview" by making him Damar.
I saw her on "Dark Matter" and loved her there.
- Founder - Taraji P. Henson
I think she was great on "Person of Interest" and would be fun to play the manipulative founder.
This one was probably down to Michael Emerson's Ben Linus and Harold Finch reminding me a lot of Jeff Combs but I just like it a lot, plus I only just realised there's a little "Person of Interest" reunion with the Founder and Weyoun.
- Jaresh-Inyo - Joe Estevez
I just can't stop thinking about the same guy who portrayed the great President Davidson on "Decker" portraying the Federation President. This one was probably the least serious.
- Admiral William Ross - Andrew Robinson
I wanted to cast at least one DS9 alumni and I've always wanted to fan cast Andy in a completely different role and I thought this would be fun.
