Celia Rose Gooding Is Taking Uhura Closer To Nichelle Nichols In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4

Published Aug 17, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT

John Orquiola is a New & Classic TV Editor, Senior Writer, and Interviewer with a special focus on Star Trek. John has over 5,000 published articles at SR, and he has interviewed the biggest names in Star Trek on the red carpet and VIP events, among other beloved shows, movies, and franchises.

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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4!One of the joys of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is watching Celia Rose Gooding bring Uhura closer and closer to the version played by the iconic Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Ensign Nyota Uhura is no longer the timid Starfleet cadet she was when she first came aboard the USS Enterprise. In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, Uhura is more self-assured about her place as Communications Officer and the importance of her role as the heart of the Starship Enterprise. Yet Nyota is still evolving and has much more to learn as Strange New Worlds begins warping towards the series' endgame.

ScreenRant's John Orquiola had the pleasure of speaking with Celia Rose Gooding about Uhura's big moments so far in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, and what life has been like for the 26-year-old Grammy winner after Strange New Worlds wrapped filming its fifth and final season last December.

Uhura Has A Conflict With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' New Vulcan

Everyone on the USS Enterprise likes Uhura... or so she thought. In Strange New Worlds season 4's premiere, Nyota was excited to pay it forward and become a mentor to A'Sha (Bianca Nugara), the newest Starfleet cadet to join the Enterprise crew, only to be taken aback by the standoffish and rude young Vulcan. Celia says Uhura's problems with A'Sha have only just begun.

“I don't want to spoil too much, but the tales, the trials, and the tribulations of Nyota Uhura and Cadet A’Sha are far from over," Gooding promises, explaining that, for Uhura, "There is something really cinematic and contextually rich about a conflict like the one that Cadet A’Sha poses to her."

When you are someone who has really found your footing, and you meet someone who is the polar opposite to you, you can really make one of two choices: you can soften and melt and sort of abandon yourself in an attempt to appeal to someone who's difficult and so culturally different, or you can stand your ground and really back yourself, and believe in your energy, and believe in your spirit, and continue to stand in your convictions and your decision-making.

I think the choice that Uhura makes [dealing with A'Sha] is really reminiscent of what Lieutenant Uhura would do. Uhura is not the sort of shy, sheepish girl she was in season one. This is season four Uhura. She has something to teach. People can learn from her, and I think it's really exciting to see her stand in that, as opposed to abandoning herself. I think season one Uhura would have made a different choice, but it's just another example of how far she's come and how far she's grown.

Celia is "really excited for fans to get the immediately available entertainment of watching someone you love go through a really tense and friction-y relationship." At the same time, "The people who love her and are excited to watch her grow will really back her and really cheer her on in her choice to stay steadfast, and how she chooses to approach what is, no matter how old you are, no matter what you do, a difficult situation."

Gooding has high praise for Bianca Nugara, whom she calls "a light. She's great, and what she has to offer as Cadet A’Sha is so interesting and fun, and so more goodness is coming, for sure, between the two of us.”

Getting To Cut Loose And Play "Rave-hura"

When Tawny Newsome guest-starred in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2's beloved crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, her character, Ensign Beckett Mariner, was thrilled to meet her hero, Uhura, only to learn that Nyota was a workaholic who can't relax. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's ode to The Hangover, "Human Best Friend," saw an inebriated new side to Nyota: Rave-hura.

Playing Rave-hura "was such an exhale," Gooding beams, noting how "I've been dying to play a much more chillaxed party girl role. I think, just because of the nature of me as a dramatic actor, that I am often pulled towards very serious, very busy. very Capricorn-type divas. And so, to play a version of her that is so zenned out and blissed out, and really protective of her peace… I loved the idea that she won't hang out with her best friends because they're having a really hard time with something right now, and their energy cannot come in and like muck up what Uhura's got going on."

I think Rave-hura is incredibly inspired by her relationship with Mariner.

"I found it to be very funny when I read it in the script where she's like, 'No, you guys are doing way too much for me right now, and I'm chilling in here,'" Celia explains. "Besides the fact that her costume was incredible, besides the fact that her makeup was incredible, besides the fact that the nature of the episode is so comedic and fun, I think Rave-hura is incredibly inspired by her relationship with Mariner, the one that she had in the Lower Decks crossover. I think that the voice of Mariner, the voice of Tawny Newsome, lives in Uhura's head, just like the voice of Tawny Newsome lives in mine."

I don't know that there has been so much unspoken evolution of Uhura and the different facets of her, and I think we get to see one that we didn't really expand on after the Lower Decks crossover in season two. I like to think that Mariner and Ortegas, if she wasn't in this sort of buddy-cop sort of situation with Scotty, I think that they would both be very proud of Rave-hura for finally letting her hair down. Even if it required atmospheric inebriation, she got there, and that is what deserves celebrating. So yeah, I love it. It's a nice callback to that episode in season 2.

ScreenRant: I also loved the jokes. “Her hands are so soft.”

Celia Rose Gooding: Well, yeah, because no matter where she is, Uhura is always moisturized. We cannot forget that.

Uhura Is Mentored By Dr. M'Benga In Strange New Worlds' Film Noir Episode

Image credit: Paramount+

In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's film noir episode, "A Case of Chiaroscuro," Uhura and Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) must survive undercover on a black-and-white planet occupied by the Klingons. It was the first time in the series that Uhura and M'Benga shared substantial scenes.

“That is exactly what I said when I realized how much time M’Benga and Uhura spend together," Gooding agrees. "I have such an incredible amount of respect and admiration for Babs, who plays Dr. M’Benga. He is such a whole, grounded, centered, and strong-footed individual. You can't help but blissfully submit to the current of his aura. He's just a real cool guy. He's the perfect guy to play Dr. M’Benga. And so, knowing that and having that admiration for him since we started shooting in season one, the fact that M’Benga and Uhura have this mentor and mentee moment in this episode meant so much to me."

Explaining the "pseudo-paternal role" that M"Benga plays for Uhura, Celia explains that Nyota may not have recognized it in the moment, "But I do, I understand how important it was for her to have those moments with him, even if they were short-lived. I just have so much respect for Babs, and Uhura has so much respect for Dr. M’Benga, and so much love for him, and so much wanting from him."

I think that Uhura, especially when we beam down to this Klingon-occupied planet, is immediately out of her element. She's out of her element before we even beam down. She's out of her element on the shuttle, and Dr. M’Benga is immediately there for her in a way that she may not understand how necessary it is, but I do.

It meant so much to me to be able to work with him that closely because Uhura needs a father figure. And while she is grown, and she has matured, I think she needed to have a positive male role model like Dr. M’Benga, to have that pseudo-paternal father-daughter relationship between the two of them. For those who know Uhura’s background story of grief, and for people who know M’Benga's story of familial grief, they're sort of filling voids for each other without really acknowledging it, which I think is even more beautiful.

We don't have to name everything all the time and put words to the dynamic and make it really, really obvious. I think that the girls who get it, get it, and the girls who don't, don't. But I really loved watching and working with him because they complete each other in a way that is just very satisfying. It's like watching two puzzle pieces finally fit.

Where Strange New Worlds' Ending Leaves Uhura

Image credit: Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will end with season 5, but executive producers and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers have been vocal about wanting to spin off Paul Wesley's Captain Kirk to lead a new series dubbed Star Trek: Year One. Uhura would, of course, be part of Kirk's Enterprise crew, but would Celia Rose Gooding return to play Lieutenant Uhura?

“Yes. Yes. Yes. 100%," Gooding answers unequivocally. "She has been like the love of my life these past five years, and so it would be an honor and a privilege to return to her and continue to grow and expand with her. That's my girl. If anybody does it, I would want it to be me.”

While I miss Nyota, she's not that far away. She is a part of me.

ScreenRant: Now that you've also had some distance from Nyota, looking back at the five seasons, are you happy with who she became? Did you leave her in a good place? Do you miss her?

Celia Rose Gooding: All the time. I don't know if this makes me a good actor or a bad actor, and I don't think it's up for me to decide, but the characters I play live in me forever. The lessons that I learned from Nyota, the way she has inspired me to back myself, [are] a way that I don't think I would have learned to do this quickly at this point in my life.

Again, I am only 26, and, like a lot of people would say, I think this is when your life really begins, when your frontal lobe develops. That's sort of when your life starts, and so much of my life has been dedicated to characters, to women, to young girls who have changed my life and prepared me for the life that I'm going to inherit.

So while I miss Nyota, she's not that far away. She is a part of me, and getting to talk about her and getting to hear people's thoughts on her journey thus far keep her still present in me. So while I do miss living through her and telling stories through her, we're gonna be all right.

What Life After Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Is Like For Celia Rose Gooding

It's been over eight months since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series-wrapped filming, although the cast and executive producers have reassembled to promote season 4, and will do the same next year for the final season.

Gooding says returning to "civilian life" after five seasons in Starfleet, "has been interesting. When I work, I put myself in a little bit of a bubble, especially with how easy it is with our show. It's very specific, and while we have a very genre-diverse show, the genre of sci-fi is very all-encompassing."

Over these past five years, I have lived and breathed all things Uhura, and given the nature of my career, I've been pretty nonstop since I started. I haven't had a period of time where I wasn't either in school or working since I started. This is my eight months of fun-employment, as I'm calling it, since I started my career at the age of 17, and it's interesting.

There's a freedom and a real and intense sense of relaxation that I'm going through, but I also miss it a lot. I miss storytelling. I can't wait for the next thing that comes to me and that I reach for. But we spent a lot of time this month working, whether it's going to the Italian Series Film Festival where I got my Maximo Rising Star Award, or going to San Diego Comic Con, or going to Mexico City Comic Con, or going regional at all these different conventions.

Celia calls Star Trek "eternal," pointing out, "It is everywhere, and it's going to be a part of my life forever, which I'm so grateful for because I'm someone who needs an anchor, and I love that Trek is my anchor right now. But yeah, it's been interesting. Every day is different. I've enjoyed being at home. I know my cats miss me very much, but I'm not gonna lie: I'm missing some storytelling. I'm excited to get up into something new.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4 is streaming on Paramount+.

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