“Star Trek: Section 31” takes the franchise on a road less traveled by bringing back “Star Trek: Discovery” standout Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) and putting her in charge of a heist. Unlike the “Star Wars'” take on the heist movie theme in 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the often more idealistic and pacifistic “Trek” opts for a far more light-hearted route. “Star Trek: Section 31” is B-movie trash in the best possible way, as the Academy Award winning Yeoh rocks her fallen tyrant character’s new role as the head of arguably the most ragtag team a “Star Trek” project has ever given fans.

Among the key members of the film’s Section 31 special ops team is the unpredictable and intense Fuzz, who probably wouldn’t be a main character in just about any other “Star Trek” film. Fuzz is played by South African actor Sven Ruygrok, a rising star who’s been making a name for himself in recent years — both in genre fiction and outside it. Here’s where you might have seen him before.

Before its cancellation and move to Netflix in late 2023, Max’s “Warrior” ranked among the best things on TV. The perennially unsung 19th century martial arts crime drama has led a beleaguered life but could still potentially get another season if it proves adequately successful on Netflix. For now, however, fans who have already binged the show will simply have to make do with a rewatch … and, while they’re at it, spotting some surprising guest stars.

In the stellar “Warrior” season 3, one such guest star is none other than Sven Ruygrok. He appears in episode 6, titled “A Soft Heart Will Do You No Favors,” as the notable but conflicted antagonist Carter. As Richard Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) and Wang Chao (Hoon Lee) find themselves chained aboard a train that’s moving toward the former’s native Georgia, they have to brush away their personal differences to survive the wrath of Aunt Violet (Patricia Boyer), whose sons Lee killed. Carter is one of Lee’s cousins, and Lee is extremely saddened to find out that the promising youngster has been reduced to little more than a henchman — especially since it’s partially because of Lee’s own actions.

Chao and Lee ultimately escape the clutches of the wrathful family, and things end in a way that gives us every reason to believe that this is the last we’ll see of Carter. As such, whether “Warrior” ever gets to continue its story or not, Ruygrok’s fans can at least rest assured that his character’s arc comes to a fairly definite conclusion.

“Star Trek: Section 31” isn’t the first time Sven Ruygrok has played a rogue genre character, with the actor having previously played the pirate Cabaji in Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s popular manga “One Piece.” The floppy-haired, shirtless, knife-throwing expert is one of major antagonist Buggy the Clown’s (Jeff Ward) chief henchmen, and his knife-throwing wheel of death can make a prisoner’s life extremely uncomfortable.

Cabaji has a very special bone to pick with Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), a pirate hunter who finds himself running with the Straw Hat Pirates. Naturally, the two blade-wielding characters come face to face when Cabaji captures Zoro in his knife-throwing wheel of death in “One Piece” season 1 episode 2, “The Man in a Straw Hat.” While Cabaji isn’t quite as big a threat to the protagonist as he’d like to believe, their time together is nevertheless pivotal to Zoro’s story as it marks the first moment he openly expresses his support of Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy).

In the source material, Cabaji hangs around for a good while, serving as a trusty lieutenant-slash-henchman for Buggy and a certain future villain whose appearance we won’t spoil here. It remains to be seen whether the show intends to keep him around to the same extent, but given that it has barely started to touch on the character’s acrobat abilities, it wouldn’t be out of the question to expect more of Ruygrok in the series’ second season.

Sven Ruygrok rose to fame in his native South Africa by starring in the 2010 boarding school comedy-drama “Spud,” where he played a student known as Rambo opposite John Cleese and musician-actor Troye Sivan (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “The Idol”). He also reprised the role in the movie’s two sequels, “Spud 2: The Madness Continues” (2013) and “Spud 3: Learning to Fly” (2014). 

After the first “Spud,” Ruygrok soon started picking up roles outside the series. Among other films, he’s had roles in Jérôme Salle’s 2013 crime thriller “Zulu” (aka “Cape Town Cops”), where he appeared opposite Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker, as well as Jabbar Raisani’s 2014 sci-fi thriller “Alien Outpost” and David Prior’s curious 2022 horror film “The Empty Man.” You can also spot him in films ranging from “Critters Attack!” — the 2019 reboot of the cult sci-fi horror comedy “Critters” — and Bonnie Rodini’s 2021 comedy-drama “Good Life.” 

On the small screen front, Ruygrok played the supporting character G-Dog in all 12 episodes of the British summer camp comedy-drama “Beaver Falls” from 2011 to 2012. He’s also embraced the young screen actor’s journeyman stage with a robust selection of guest roles in shows like the David Tennant-starring 2021 Jules Verne adaptation “Around the World in 80 Days” and History’s 2022 “Abraham Lincoln” miniseries. While many of the first reactions to “Star Trek: Section 31” were brutal, the Paramount+ movie is the actor’s biggest international showcase to date — and with his performance as Fuzz, we may very well hear plenty more of him yet.

“Star Trek: Section 31” is now streaming on Paramount+.