Background

LeVar Burton was born on February 16, 1957, in Landstuhl, West Germany (now Germany) to the family of Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, a photographer in the United States Army Signal Corps, and Erma Gene Christian, an educator and social worker. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California.

Education

At the age of 13, Burton entered a Catholic seminary to study for the priesthood but ultimately decided to pursue an acting career instead, graduating from the University of Southern California's School of Theater (currently School of Dramatic Arts).

Career

Burton was an undergraduate at the University of Southern California's School of Theater when he was discovered and chosen to play the key role of Kunta Kinte in Roots, which premiered in January 1977. This groundbreaking mini-series became one of the most acclaimed and highest-rated programs in United States television history, earning a total of 37 Emmy Award nominations (winning 9); Burton himself earned an Emmy nomination for his performance.

In 1983, Burton began hosting Reading Rainbow, an educational program for the Public Broadcasting Service aimed at encouraging children to read. As both host and executive producer of this series, Burton has earned a total of ten Daytime Emmy nominations, with six wins. He also earned seven Image Award nominations, winning four of them.

In 1987 Burton was cast as Geordi La Forge for Star Trek: The Next Generation TV-series, a blind Starfleet officer who utilizes a special device to be able to see. This is possibly the role that brought him most of his current fame.

Since he was working on both Star Trek and Reading Rainbow at the same time, Burton did little else during the early 1990s.

In addition to acting, Burton has directed many Star Trek episodes. In fact, he has directed the most episodes of any Star Trek actor and is one of only five directors to shoot at least one episode of every live-action Star Trek spin-off series.

In 1998, Burton directed his first non-Trek project, The Tiger Woods Story. His other television directorial credits include multiple episodes of Soul Food and Charmed. He also directed the 2003 family film Blizzard, starring Christopher Plummer and featuring the voice of Whoopi Goldberg as the title reindeer. Burton himself made a cameo appearance in the movie as an elf.

He recently directed and starred in the comic drama Reach for Me, working with performers Adrienne Barbeau, Seymour Cassel, and Alfre Woodard, and cameraman Kris Krosskove. Another directing project - a film called Initiation - is also in the works.

After directing episodes of the three Star Trek television series, Burton delved into creating a science fiction world of his own in a book Aftermath, released in 1997. He also co-authored a children's book The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm published in 2014.

Achievements

• LeVar Burton is an actor, director and educator who has been an icon for science fiction fans for more than 35 years.
  
  Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. The series ran for 23 seasons, making it one of the longest-running children's programs on the network. The series garnered over 200 broadcast awards over its run, including a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, 11 of which were in the Outstanding Children's Series category. Burton himself won 12 Emmy Awards as host and producer of the show. All of these brought him an acknowledgment as an outstanding mass media educator.
  
  In 2019 Burton received Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm

    (When little Mica Mouse is scared by thunder booming outsi...)

    2014
  • Aftermath

    (The United States of 2019 is a very different place. Econ...)

    1997

• movie

  • Star Trek VII: Generations

    (Captain Picard, with the help of supposedly dead Captain ...)

    1994
  • Star Trek: Nemesis

    (After the Enterprise is diverted to Romulus, supposedly t...)

    2002
  • Star Trek: Insurrection

    (When the crew of the Enterprise learn of a Federation plo...)

    1998
  • Star Trek VIII: First Contact

    (Captain Picard and his crew follow the Borg back in time ...)

    1996
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation

    (Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the s...)

  • Parallel Lives 1995

Religion

Although raised Catholic and at one point studying to become a priest, Burton no longer identifies with any religion.

Politics

LeVar Burton supported Hilary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 United States Presidential elections.

Views

LeVar Burton considers a question of education to be of great importance. He dedicated a full TV-show to inspiring children to read and is proud that Star Track encouraged some young people to go into the sciences.

Quotations: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."

"We can't afford to sacrifice another generation of American children to bureaucratic politics. We've got to get it done. The future, the health, the life - our nation depends on it and it's just foolish to think or act otherwise."

"We have an amazing advantage right now in that we have developed technology that is so sexy, so engaging for kids."

Membership

Burton serves on the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.

• 

  AIDS Research Alliance , United States

Personality

Being fascinated with space Burton currently serves on the advisory committee of the 100 Year Starship Initiative, which seeks the launching of an interstellar voyage within the next one hundred years. Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison is heading the initiative.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Laozi, Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard

• Politicians

  Hilary Clinton

• Writers

  Rudyard Kipling, Jerome David Salinger

• Sport & Clubs

  FC Arsenal, poker

Connections

LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3, 1992. He and his wife currently live in Sherman Oaks, California. Burton has two children, a daughter Michaela "Mica" with his wife, and a son, Eian Burton from a previous relationship.

Father:

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Sr.

Mother:

Erma Gene Christian

Wife:

Stephanie Cozart

Son:

Eian Burton

Daughter:

Michaela Jean Burton

colleague:

Whoopi Goldberg

References

• The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature With more than 1,000 entries by more than 200 expert contributors, this encyclopedia is the most comprehensive reference available on African American literature. While most of the entries are on individual authors, the encyclopedia gives special attention to the historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped African American writing.
  2005
• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998