Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. is an American actor, director, and children’s television host. He is best known for his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also starred as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots. Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. In 2017, LeVar Burton was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement.
About LeVar Burton in brief
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. is an American actor, director, and children’s television host. He is best known for his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also starred as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots. Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS. 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. In 2017, LeVar 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. On May 28, 2014, Burton started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over USD 5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days. The series started out serving as the Enterprise’s helmsman, and as the time 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 Star Trek.
He directed two episodes of Star Trek Generations: Nemesis. In 2019, Burton’s role was essentially the ‘new Spock’ in the Star Trek film, Star Trek Nemesis. He has also portrayed La Forge on several other television shows and in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek, such as The Next generation: Nemesis and The Next Trek: The Next Generations: The Final Frontier. He was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category for his performance in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career. He 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. 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. 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. \”
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