https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp235
Culhane is another background character played by a stand-in, and like many others in Voyager, he is around for all seasons of the show thanks to the premise of a small crew being stranded in the Delta Quadrant. He actually appears in the second most episodes for recurring characters, so a lot of good work for this background actor.
Culhane is an ensign who receives assignments as a conn officer, an engineer, and a tactical officer. Thus, we see Culhane working in engineering on many occasions, as well as walking past major characters in the corridors of the ship. He also fills in at Harry Kim's station on the bridge and at Tuvok's station on the bridge during non-primary shifts, although we also see him working at another generic aft station of the bridge as well.
Culhane nearly takes Tom Paris's chief conn officer job away when Tom has to serve a 30 day sentence in the brig for actions taken in the fifth season of the show, and that was as close as he got to a more significant role. Unlike most background characters, we actually do not see Culhane in the common areas or the mess hall very much, so maybe he is a workaholic.
Ensign Culhane was played by Louis Ortiz in all 49 appearances of this character. Ortiz appeared as many characters, mostly aliens and often as a Borg, throughout the runs of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. He was known on set for mentoring and training other actors on how to properly move like aliens, so he had a strong presence and important effect behind the scenes to make these shows better.
Ortiz has transitioned to a director role in the last five years, but as an actor, he had many credits over a 20 year career, including as a valet in the Jim Carrey movie The Mask, and as a spectator in Fight Club. He's not to be confused with another recent famous Louis Ortiz, the Barack Omaba impressionist and comic known as Bronx Obama.
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