Inside Shazad Latif's life from real name to kiss with 'best friend' co-star

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Nautilus, inspired by Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, is available on Amazon Prime Video.

The series features Captain Nemo, an Indian prince turned scientist, portrayed by Shazad Latif. The storyline is set in 1857, a time when the East India Trading Company held immense power.

Nemo, a captive forced to construct a warship named Nautilus, plots a prisoner revolt to commandeer the Nautilus and make his escape.

Shazad Latif is also known for his roles as Tariq Masood in Spooks, Clem Fandango in Toast of London, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Penny Dreadful.

Here's what you need to know about the actor's life off-screen.

Born Iqbal Amin in London in 1988, Shazad Latif is of Pakistani, English and Scottish heritage and was raised in Tufnell Park, North London.

After a successful acting career, he appeared in Star Trek: Discovery playing a dual character, revealed in the credits.

Having played both Ash Tyler and Voq, it became clear why the actor credited as Voq was Javid Iqbal.

Shazad disclosed to Indie Wire that Javid Iqbal was his late father. "My real name is Iqbal Amin," said Latif.

"[Javid Iqbal]...was a big film buff. He changed the film reels in a cinema years ago. They said, 'Well, you can choose a name, you can choose a pseudonym,' and I chose that. It was just a shout-out to him, really."

As for his other career highlights, the actor opened up about his multifaceted connection with Lily James, his co-star in the film What's Love Got to Do with It?, revealing a behind-the-scenes bond that led to an amusingly awkward on-screen moment.

He detailed to news.com how their friendly kiss was both "very awkward" and "very sweet and very funny", going as far as to consume an entire pack of mints for freshness before the shoot.

"I got through an entire pack [of mints] beforehand, just to make sure I was fresh," he confessed, adding, "We just handled it with a lot of care, and we love each other anyway. It was a nice moment."

Their close friendship remained under wraps during the casting process, not coming to light until after they had both secured their roles in the project.

Sharing a reflection on their journey to becoming close colleagues, he expressed deep regard for James: "Me and Lily have been real close friends for years, and when Lily got involved, it sort of kicked it off. And so, I owe Lily James my life."

He fondly reminisced about their earlier days, saying, "We used to be at house parties improvising together, it was fun to do it in a professional sense."

Nautilus airs on Amazon Prime Video on October 25

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