profile
Santiago Cabrera
By David Munro Photography Mathieu Young
Focus is the keyword for Santiago Cabrera, an actor just coming into his own. It's a profession he chose carefully and pursued with no family influences to lean on or learn from. Basically, no one in his family was remotely connected to the business. Far from it. His father is a diplomat so for Cabrera growing up, you were either going to study law or the economy. There was nothing in between. Living abroad in so many different countries —he counts Toronto, Chile, Spain, Romania, UK as places he’s called home—he was always a shy kid, observing, trying to fit in, always looking to blend amongst his peers and not stand out, never one to ruffle feathers and make a scene. So he turned to acting, did a play, and was hooked right away, caught the bug, then on to drama school, the place that changed him and set him on his path. He then started to discover plays from all eras, started to study the history of acting by watching old movies and getting to know the craft of
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acting. “I feel like my life had prepared me very much for this moment.” That moment is Star Trek: Picard. The web series from CBS All Access follows captain Jean-Luc Picard and stars Patrick Stewart, reprising his role from the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran from 19871994. The new Picard premiered in January and ended in late March. Trekkie fans are in luck: production on the second season starts during the summer, Covid-19 be damned. Cabrera plays Cristobal “Chris” Rios, a former Starfleet officer. The series came in at the right time for Cabrera, a pilot season. He had just finished work on a show called Salvation, a CBS series which aired for two sea-
sons and whose storyline centered around earth’s impending doom from an asteroid. Cabrera was the lead and played scientist Darius Tanz. When he was auditioning for the Picard role, he wasn’t necessarily a Trekkie but knew that having Sir Patrick Stewart as the lead was a huge incentive, as Stewart shot to fame with the role in TNG. With Michael Chabon involved as a writer on the show, it was a win-win in Cabrera’s eyes. “I found that [the script and premise] super interesting because I knew that there would be a whole different angle and type of storytelling so I was engaged in it,” said Cabrera. “I’m in love with what they’ve written, what they’ve done with the show. I’ve had so much fun with this character.”
