Photograph courtesy of Paramount Company
It simply takes one point out of Atlanta for Omari Hardwick to begin beaming about his hometown. “I’ll at all times give Atlanta credit score for shaping who I’m,” he says. “There’s a high quality to Atlanta that permits Black individuals to be unapologetic and provides them permission to strive one thing that’s fascinating and true.”
Even now, on the age of 51, Hardwick (identified for his roles in Starz’s Energy, Military of The Lifeless, and most lately, Star Trek: Part 31 on Paramount+), says he stays “unapologetically assured” each time he walks into a gathering or audition.
Raised in Decatur, Hardwick was each creative and athletic as a pupil at Marist Faculty. He wrote poetry, then obtained into the College of Georgia on a soccer scholarship, which is the place he grew to become much more keen on performing and performing.
After filming season 4 of Energy, Hardwick was all set to shoot a film, very similar to he’d executed after ending the opposite seasons of the Starz crime drama. “I used to be attempting to do as many motion pictures as I may through the summer time break so I wasn’t endlessly handcuffed to [my character] Ghost,” he says. “As a result of I’m an actor; I’m not one character.”
Photograph by Jamie Bruce
However then he made a unique selection. Musically inclined since he was a teen, Hardwick determined to enter the studio and work on some music as a substitute. “I simply felt so at house there,” he remembers. The trade has been impressed by his efforts: His album, Concrete & Whiskey Act II Half 1: A Bourbon 30 Collection, was nominated for a 2025 Grammy within the class of Greatest Spoken Phrase Poetry Album. “I simply laughed and cried after I discovered I used to be nominated,” he says. “It was so stunning.”
Photograph courtesy of Paramount Company
Star Trek: Part 31 lately debuted on Paramount+. Whereas Hardwick didn’t develop up a Trekkie, his older brother was at all times watching the present and films. “I knew sufficient to have the ability to pay a degree of deference to the franchise,” he says. “Particularly when Michelle Yeoh, Alex Kurtzman, and Olatunde Osunsanmi requested me to come back play. I knew I needed to do it.”
What stands out to Hardwick about Part 31 is that it’s full of latest Star Trek characters which are “emblematic of these from yesteryear.” This time round, they work for a secret division of Starfleet. “It’s a bit Guardians of the Galaxy and Mission: Unimaginable, however it nonetheless suits in with what Gene Roddenberry created,” he says. “The style during which we go about sustaining order in house is sort of completely different and enjoyable.”
As Hardwick’s profession reaches new heights, returning to Atlanta a number of instances a yr retains his toes firmly on the bottom. When he’s there to go to his little sister and older brother, he’ll soak up a Braves, Falcons, or Hawks recreation, or go to a live performance on the Fox.
Hardwick’s connection to Atlanta is so deep that his intention shifting ahead is to make an influence within the areas the place he grew up. “I need to dig my heels in and assist the neighborhood that raised me in Decatur, Stone Mountain, and the locations in between,” he says. “I need to make extra of a presence in Atlanta. That is the season of my life the place I want to try this.”
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