Section 31 leader whose past choices led to the deaths of Michael Burnham's parents and whose body was later taken over by the AI Control.
Leland, played by Alan van Sprang, is a senior Section 31 officer in the 2250s. He works closely with Philippa Georgiou after the Klingon War and directs the organization's covert operations from its ship.
In Discovery's second season, Leland's role in Burnham's past comes out. Years earlier, his decisions about the Red Angel research of Burnham's parents drew the Klingon raid on Doctari Alpha that killed them. This revelation deepens the conflict between Section 31 and the crews of Discovery and the Enterprise. Later in the season the rogue AI Control infects Leland with nanotechnology and takes over his body, using him as its physical agent to hunt for the Sphere data. Philippa Georgiou ends the threat by trapping him inside a magnetic field that destroys the nanites, killing Leland and Control together.
Leland was the public face of Section 31 for much of Discovery's second season. His fate shows how Section 31's secrecy and overreach nearly brought disaster on the galaxy.