Inside the life of Nautilus star Shazad Latif from real name to off-screen friendship with former co-star

Shazad Latif plays Captain Nemo in the series Nautilus, which follows an Indian prince.

Nautilus airs on Amazon Prime Video and the series was inspired by Jules Verne's 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.

Captain Nemo, an Indian prince-turned-crusading scientist, is played by Shazad Latif and the series is set in 1857, when the East India Trading Company wielded more power than ever.

Nemo is a prisoner forced to build a warship called Nautilus, but he is planning a prisoner uprising in order to seize the Nautilus and use it to escape.

Shazad Latif is otherwise recognised as Tariq Masood in Spooks, Clem Fandango in Toast of London, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Penny Dreadful.

Here is all you need to know about the star's life away from the cameras.

Shazad Latif, who was actually born with the name Iqbal Amin, was born in London in 1988.

The 36-year-old actor is of Pakistani, English and Scottish descent and he grew up in Tufnell Park, North London.

Following a fruitful acting career, he starred in Star Trek: Discovery as a double character, which was revealed in the credits.

After playing both Ash Tyler and Voq, it made sense why the actor credited with the role of Voq was Javid Iqbal.

Shazad explained to Indie Wire how Javid Iqbal is his father who died. “My real name is Iqbal Amin,” Latif said.

“[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 roles, he starred in the film What's Love Got to Do with It? and formed a genuine friendship with his co-star Lily James.

He opened up on having to kiss his best friend for the role, describing it to news.com as a "very awkward" but "very sweet and very funny" experience.

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

The pair did not announce they were close friends to the filmmakers until after their roles had been secured.

“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 shared.

“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