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In all of their appearances that I can think of in the TV shows, I can't remember having seen a single Klingon individual whose ethnicity differs much from the dark-skinned "standard" one that we are accustomed to see:

Two dark skinned Klingons stood together

Even other alien species could have different ethnicities (one of the main examples is Tuvok, a dark-skinned Vulcan), so we know that Humans are not the sole species to possess this kind of feature.

Do light-skinned Klingons exist? Do different ethnicities exist within their species as a whole?

Albinos of course don't count here (i.e. Voq, or the Albino himself, if he really is a Klingon indeed), nor the different look that they had in consequence of the "augment virus".

For the sake of simplicity, this question refers to anything released before Star Trek: Discovery, where the Klingon, like almost everything else in the series, were depicted in a very different look than before, AFAIK without much explanation other than out-of-universe production choices.

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  • res.cloudinary.com/startrekdesignproject-com/image/upload/…
    – Valorum
    Apr 22, 2020 at 20:31
  • i.imgur.com/Kw0tUf2.jpg
    – Valorum
    Apr 22, 2020 at 20:33
  • 2
    @valorum the second one is half Klingon
    – Revenant
    Apr 23, 2020 at 2:25
  • @Sekhemty You use the word "ethnicity" when the word you should have used was probably "race". livescience.com/difference-between-race-ethnicity.html Considering all the different bumpy patterns that Klingons have on their foreheads, I find it easy to believe that there are different Klingon races. The skin colors of Klingons also vary, as Koloth's crew in "The Trouble with Tribbles" had much lighter skin than Kor and Kang and their crews. So Klingons seem more racially diverse than humans.
    – M. A. Golding
    Apr 23, 2020 at 16:20
  • @M.A.Golding one can argue that cranial ridges could be physical features that differ only between individuals, i.e. like the shape of our own earlobes or noses, without considering them distinctive to broader groups of people. Anyway, I consciously (and cautiously) used the word "ethnicity" exactly because I did not want to start any kind of argument, especially over fictional aliens.
    – Sekhemty
    Apr 23, 2020 at 16:43

2 Answers 2

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Some of the high-ranking Klingons in The Undiscovered Country are light skinned including Chancellor Gorkon and General Chang, who are light skinned in appearance (esp. Chang) and both played by white actors.

Close up headshot of Chancellor Gorkon showing his light skin compared to normal Klingons: he raises a glass Close up headshot of General Chang showing his light skin compared to normal Klingons: he wears an eye patch

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  • Gorkon's daughter Azetbur also had relatively light skin. K'ehleyr was noticeably lighter-skinned when standing next to Worf, as was B'ellana Torres, although one could probably argue about both due to them being half-human. Vixis from STV (assuming you believe that film exists) also had fairly light skin.
    – Keith Morrison
    Apr 23, 2020 at 22:07
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In TOS they were sometimes white. Here are William Campbell (Koloth) and Michael Pataki (Krax) in "The Trouble With Tribbles".

Koloth and Krax stood together showing their lighter skin compared to most Klingons

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