The lovely Arista Arhin is best known for her role as the young Michael Burnham on Star Trek: Discovery, where she delivers a strong and emotional performance. She spoke to Defective Geeks about the challenges and inspiration for her work, as well as her upcoming show, Bajillionaires. Read all about it below!

Thank you so much for answering our questions, Arista. It is so exciting that you get to portray Young Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery! Can you tell us what it’s like working on this series and knowing that it’s part of this huge, sci-fi universe? 

It felt unreal and a little startling when I first got cast for the show knowing that I was now part of one of the most iconic TV shows of all time. When I first started filming, I felt under pressure to deliver a great performance knowing how huge the franchise was and not wanting to disappoint any of the fans. Yet, after a lot of positive feedback, it really meant a lot to me to know that people enjoyed watching me on the show. I was very happy to have been invited back to Season 2. 

From a bartender (in space!) with a shady past to Mrs. Kringle, Thom Allison knows how to show his audience a fun time on screen or on stage. Check out our fun conversation with Allison about his cabaret Christmas show and his recurring role in SyFy’s Killjoys.

Shut Up, It’s Christmas! What is this magical cabaret show and what inspired this? Who is Lola Kringle and what are her wants and needs?

SHUT UP, IT’S CHRISTMAS! is a cabaret I created that started as part of a smaller cabaret about 10 years ago. It was my second solo cabaret and it was a three set evening that I titled “Classic Christmas”, “Campy Christmas” and “Creepy Christmas”. Lola was part of Campy Christmas and she was only a small section. I wanted to do something a little different. Christmas-y but not so obvious and direct. I was inspired by A Charlie Brown Christmas. I wanted something that was funny, sweet and a little melancholy. I thought of being Santa but that was so “right on the nose”. So I thought about playing Mrs. Claus and telling stories about her life with Santa. But with all the bumps and joys. And I added the challenge of not allowing myself to use any Christmas songs for that section. It was all musical theatre songs with a couple of standards thrown in. It was a small section that people really enjoyed so much that several years later I developed her into a whole 50 minute act. She became the first act and then in the second act, I come out as myself and sing my version of Christmas songs, with anecdotes and audience interaction. And SHUT UP, IT’S CHRISTMAS! was born.

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Katherine Barrell stars in SyFy’s Wynonna Earp and plays fan favorite, the sexy and confident, Officer Nicole Haught. She is also set to play a neurotic mom on a comedy series, Workin’ Moms. Read our interview with the vivacious Katherine about her work and what kind of supernatural creature she would choose for a pet…

Tell us about Wynonna Earp and Officer Nicole Haught. What is your favorite part about your character?

Office Haught is a confident, smart determined cop who lives in the town of Purgatory. She is a newcomer to the town and quickly falls for local sweetheart, Waverly Earp, who also has a pretty complicated family – essentially Waverly is a demon hunter, which probably makes Nicole fall harder!

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Tamsen McDonough currently plays Lucy, the most cheeky AI spaceship in the galaxy, in SyFy’s KILLJOYS. She brings in a lot of fun to the show, keeping things spicy for the main characters (and maybe a little weird sometimes, check out the episode ‘I Love Lucy’…). Get to know her in our interview below! She is hilarious, dorable and apparently, has a thing for egging things.

Tell us about your current show, KILLJOYS and your character, Lucy.

The Killjoys is a comedic and dramatic action TV series set in space. It follows a trio of bounty hunters, known as Killjoys, who chase deadly warrants through the Quad, a distant area that is near the start of a violent class war among multiple planets. And their mode of transportation is the sleek and sassy AI spaceship, Lucy. She’s been called the fouth Killjoy and loves her humans… no bias but I think she’s amazing!

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Scarlett Johansson plays a modern, female superhero in the upcoming movie, LUCY, which also stars Morgan Freeman and Choi Min-sik. We are particularly excited to see this movie because we are all for badass female kicking lots of booty! The world of LUCY is gritty, full of action with a fascinating take on what it means to gain “superpowers.”

This week, we are giving away a prize pack for three different winners. Find out how to win below.

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GeekFest Film is looking for entries and all they want it all GEEK, GEEK, GEEK! They are searching for web series, trailers, fan films, etc. in every genre including science fiction, fantasy, comic book related, horror and many more. GeekFest will be a traveling film festival programmed at different pop culture expos and promises indie creators potential exposure to thousands of audiences. Creator and founder of GeekFest, William Ostroff, told Defective Geeks that the idea for GeekFest has been formulating for years.

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Technically, I don’t watch television since I have been watching everything online now. I still don’t know if I should feel bad about that or not, but I do things during the night and-and-and– it’s super hard to follow TV schedules, you guys. If you’ve been listening to our podcast, you know which shows I am big on this season but if not, I decided to write this blog for you and explain in Space Pirate Queen terms why I think these shows are awesome. Get ready.

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