(written from a Production point of view)
Antonio "Tony" Guma (born 1 April 1962; age 62) is an actor and filmmaker who portrayed Lew the bartender in Star Trek and a Nibiran in Star Trek Into Darkness.
As a long time friend of J.J. Abrams, Guma played parts in several of Abrams' productions, including the roles of Dino in the Felicity episode "And to All a Good Night" (2000), Ben in the Alias episode "Remnants" (2003, with Mark Bramhall, Scott Sahadi, stunts by Shauna Duggins, associate producer Bryan Burk, and executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci), Jim in the action sequel Mission: Impossible III (2006), and Sergeant Walters in science fiction film Super 8 (2011).
Guma is a former NCAA All American soccer player at the Hofstra University in New York, who studied acting under Uta Hagen and Bill Hickey. He also modeled for the Zoli Agency in New York and has worked as an English high school teacher for many years, before he sent his first script to Sony/ Columbia Pictures in 1998. His script went into production and Guma had a leading part in his comedy The Suburbans (1999), which featured Willie Garson, stunt coordination by Terry James, and producer J.J. Abrams in the role of a rock journalist.
Among his other on-screen performances are supporting and leading roles in the television series Too Something (1995), Living Single (1996), and Party Girl (1996, with Ian Abercrombie), the mystery film Don't Sleep Alone (1997), the drama Lola's Game (1998), the horror film Watchers Reborn (1998, with Lisa Wilcox, Stephen Macht, Robert Clendenin, Gary Wayton, Kane Hodder, Larry Cedar, and stunts by Monica Staggs and Mike Gunther), the science fiction film Star Portal (1998, with Stephen Davies, Anthony Crivello, and Athena Massey), Steven Soderbergh's Academy Award winning thriller Traffic (2000), and the drama Just Can't Get Enough (2002, with Vinny Achutha).
Today, Guma is a member of the Writer's Guild of America, has produced several projects, such as the short action film The Runaround (2004) and the short documentary Breakfast with Mary & Chet (2005). Further projects as an actor include the short action film Outside the Box (2009), the short comedy Happy Crackers (2009, with Jill Lover), the television series Life's a Butch (2009) on which he also worked as executive producer, writer and composer, and the short action film Forever No More (2010).
Guma also appeared in J.J. Abrams' television pilot Anatomy of Hope (2008, with Mark Rolston, Bruce Gray, Jonathan Dixon, and stunt coordination by Shauna Duggins), in the pilot episode of Abrams' crime series Undercovers (2010, with Mark Rayner, Jay Scully, Sonny Surowiec, and Thom Williams), and as Sergeant Walters in the science fiction thriller Super 8 (2011).