1. LeVar Burton played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots, and was the host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for 23 years.
38 Facts About LeVar Burton
1. 2.
LeVar 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.
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From 2017 until 2024, Burton created and hosted the podcast LeVar Burton Reads, often described as "Reading Rainbow for adults".
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In October 2024, LeVar Burton appeared as the host of the Trivial Pursuit game show on The CW.
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LeVar Burton's mother, Erma Gene, was a social worker, administrator, and educator.
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LeVar Burton's 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 the American Civil War; he was elected to represent Jefferson County in 1887.
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LeVar 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 LeVar Burton stars alongside Madge Sinclair.
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LeVar Burton has described his first day playing Kunta as the start of his professional career.
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LeVar Burton reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift.
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LeVar Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS.
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At RRKIDZ, LeVar 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.
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LeVar Burton's 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.
13.
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.
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At the time, LeVar Burton was considerably better known than Patrick Stewart in the United States, due to his roles in Roots and Reading Rainbow.
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LeVar Burton directed two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise.
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LeVar Burton reprised the role of LaForge in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard.
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Since its launch, LeVar Burton Reads has won favorable reviews, in The New Yorker and elsewhere and numerous awards, including the 2023 Webby Award for Best Art and Culture Podcast.
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In 2023, LeVar Burton launched a second podcast, this time for children, called Sound Detectives.
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LeVar Burton played a role as a visitor to Fantasy Island, guest star on The Love Boat, was a participant in Battle of the Network Stars, a guest of The Muppet Shows televised premiere party for the release of The Muppet Movie, and a frequent guest on several game shows.
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On television, Burton has helped dramatize the last days of Jim Jones's suicide cult in Guyana, the life and times of Jesse Owens, and the life of the nine-year-old Booker T Washington.
21.
LeVar Burton portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
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LeVar Burton is on the audio version of books such as The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
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LeVar Burton was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link.
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LeVar Burton defeated his final opponent Robert Picardo and won $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California, a record for the show at that time and the largest amount won in any Celebrity Edition of the show.
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LeVar Burton has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
26.
LeVar Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007.
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LeVar Burton makes occasional appearances on This Week in Tech, where he is a self-proclaimed "nerd", and participated in the Consumer Electronics Show 2010.
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LeVar Burton's segment was a callback to Lance Reddick's interview in which he mentioned LeVar by name and dressed as an amalgam of Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge.
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LeVar Burton has been very critical of the show's guest host process, stating that the show's then executive producer Mike Richards expressed disbelief about Burton wanting the job.
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In June 2022, LeVar Burton hosted the 94th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
31.
LeVar Burton has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.
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LeVar Burton has directed episodes of Charmed, JAG, Las Vegas, Scorpion, and Soul Food: The Series, as well as the miniseries Miracle's Boys and the biopic The Tiger Woods Story.
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LeVar Burton directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie Smart House starring Katey Sagal, Kevin Kilner and Jessica Steen.
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LeVar Burton was an alternate board director in 2000 and was elected to the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America in 2005 and re-elected in 2007.
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LeVar Burton married Stephanie Cozart, a professional make-up artist, on October 3,1992.
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In 2012, LeVar Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.
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In 2016, LeVar Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars.
38.
In 2024, while on the show Finding Your Roots, LeVar Burton discovered that he has a white, Confederate great-great-grandfather.