Asif is a human command division ensign on the USS Cerritos who works delta shift, a group of lower deckers who act as rivals to Mariner, Boimler and their friends.
Ensign Asif serves on the USS Cerritos under Captain Carol Freeman. He belongs to delta shift, whose members share the same corridor bunks as the beta shift ensigns and resent them heartily.
He first appears in Terminal Provocations, set in 2380, where he and Karavitus confront Mariner, Boimler and Fletcher over a missing isolinear core. In Room for Growth he lays out delta shift's plan to rig the ship's lottery for new quarters by altering the code at an access terminal, prompting beta shift to race them through the ship's innards.
He returns in Caves, joining Mariner's away mission to Glish, where he breaks a leg in the crash landing; that episode is also the first in which his name is spoken on screen. The name is borrowed from the performer, Asif Ali, who voices him.