LeVar Burton

He was elected to represent Jefferson County in 1887.

As a teen, Burton, who was raised Catholic, entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest.

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host.

Burton made his acting debut in 1976 with Almos' a Man, a film based on the Richard Wright short story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," in which he stars alongside Madge Sinclair.

His other roles include Cap Jackson in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Donald Lang in Dummy (1979), Tommy Price in The Hunter (1980), which earned him an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali (2001).

At 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting, and at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.

Burton's breakthrough role was as the young Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley.

Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career.

As a result of his performance, he was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.

Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS.

The series ran for 23 seasons.

In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series.

The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes.

La Forge began as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as of the show's second season, had become its chief engineer.

At the time, Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow.

When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock".

He played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), and was the host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for 23 years (1983–2006).

He received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow.

He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift.

When asked about the societal influence of Roots, Burton is quoted as saying: "It expanded the consciousness of people. Blacks and whites began to see each other as human beings, not as stereotypes. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. I think the only constant is change, and it's always slow. Anything that happens overnight is lacking in foundation. Roots is part of a changing trend, and it's still being played out."

Burton received the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards for his narration of the book The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, he was honored for his achievements in television with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).

After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children.

Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours.

At RRKIDZ, Burton serves as co-founder and curator-in-chief, ensuring that the projects produced under the banner meet the high expectations and trust of the Reading Rainbow brand.

On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow.

To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years.

His desire is to have the new Reading Rainbow be integrated into the classrooms of elementary schools across the country, and for schools in need to have free access.

The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.

Since 2017, Burton has created and hosted the podcast LeVar Burton Reads, often described as "Reading Rainbow for adults."

Burton was chosen as the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.

Burton was born in Landstuhl, West Germany.

His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator.

Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.

Burton's father, also named LeVar, was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps stationed at Landstuhl at the time of his son's birth.

His paternal grandparents were both educators in rural Arkansas.

His great-great grandfather, Hal B. Burton, was an African-American state legislator in Arkansas after the Reconstruction era that enfranchised African Americans in the South after American Civil War.

In 2017, Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement for use of the Reading Rainbow brand in marketing the new iPad app and other online media.

RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.

In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."