Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols was born Grace Nichols on December 28, 1932 in Robbins, Illinois. She began her show business career at age 16 as a singer with Duke Ellington in a ballet she created for one of his compositions and later sang with his band. After switching to acting, she was twice nominated for the Sarah Siddons Award for best actress in "The Blacks" and "Kicks and Company". Her film debut found her dancing with Sammy Davis Jr.

In early 1951, at age 18, she married a dancer who was 15 years her senior. Within four months they separated, and in August 1951, she bore his son. In 1968, she remarried this time to a songwriter, but that marriage also ended in divorce four years later.

in Porgy and Bess (1959).

A guest appearance on The Lieutenant (1963) led to an offer from Gene Roddenberry to join the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), which provided her best known role, as communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

Her role as Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) was one of the first times that an African-American actress was portrayed in a non-stereotypical role. Previously, African-American actresses were depicted as maids or housekeepers, and Nichols' role broke the stereotype barrier among African-American actresses. Like Sidney Poitier, whose characters were three-dimensional (e.g., Detective Virgil Tibbs), Nichols portrayed a character that was non-stereotypical.

From the late 1970s until 1987, she was employed by NASA and in charge of astronaut recruits and hopefuls. Most of the recruits she launched were minority candidates of different races and/or ethnicities, as well as gender, like Guion Bluford (the first African-American male astronaut), Sally Ride (the first American female astronaut), Judith A. Resnik (one of the original female astronauts recruited by NASA, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ron McNair (another victim of the Challenger disaster). She resided in Houston, Texas during her years as a Johnson Space Center employee.

Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6633 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 9, 1992.

On March 26, 1997, her younger brother Thomas Alva Nichols committed suicide with the other members of the notorious Heaven's Gate cult in Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego, California.

An asteroid discovered on August 16, 2001 has been renamed 68410 Nichols in her honor.

Attended FedCon 18 in Bonn, Germany on May 1-3, 2009.

Received an honorary degree from Los Angeles Mission College in Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2010.

On June 3, 2015, she suffered a mild stroke at her Los Angeles home and was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital.

She was awarded the Lifetime Career Award at the 2016 Saturn Awards for science fiction entertainment, the musical arts, and her tireless support of NASA and space exploration.

On May 3, 2018, she was suffering from severe short-term memory loss as a complication of advanced dementia.