51 Facts About Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols was an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Uhura in Star Trek and its film sequels.

From 1977 until 2015, Nichelle Nichols volunteered her time to promote NASA's programs and recruit diverse astronauts, including some of the first female and ethnic minority astronauts.

Nichelle Nichols trained in dance, and began her career as a dancer, singer, and model in Chicago.

Nichelle Nichols went into stage acting, and had a television and film career.

Nichelle Nichols attended Englewood High School, from which she graduated in 1951.

Nichelle Nichols began her professional career as a singer and dancer in Chicago.

Nichelle Nichols then toured the United States and Canada with the bands of Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.

Between acting and singing engagements, Nichelle Nichols did occasional modeling work.

In January 1967, Nichelle Nichols was featured on the cover of Ebony magazine, and had two feature articles in the publication in five years.

Nichelle Nichols continued touring the United States, Canada, and Europe as a singer with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands.

On Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series.

Nichelle Nichols's prominent supporting role as a bridge officer was unprecedented.

Nichelle Nichols was once tempted to leave the series; however, a conversation with Martin Luther King Jr.

Towards the end of the first season, Nichelle Nichols was given the opportunity to take a role on Broadway.

Nichelle Nichols preferred the stage to the television studio, so she decided to take the role.

Nichelle Nichols went to Roddenberry's office, told him that she planned to leave, and handed him her resignation letter.

Roddenberry tried to convince Nichelle Nichols to stay but to no avail, so he told her to take the weekend off and if she still felt that she should leave then he would give her his blessing.

That weekend, Nichelle Nichols attended a banquet that was being run by the NAACP, where she was informed that a fan really wanted to meet her.

Nichelle Nichols reached out to me and said, 'Yes, Ms.

Nichelle Nichols asked Roddenberry for her role back and Roddenberry took out her resignation letter, which he had already torn up.

Nichelle Nichols again provided the voice of Uhura in Star Trek: The Animated Series; in one episode, "The Lorelei Signal", Uhura assumes command of the Enterprise.

Nichelle Nichols noted in her autobiography her frustration that this never happened on the original series.

Nichelle Nichols co-starred in six Star Trek films, the last one being Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

In 1994, Nichelle Nichols published her autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories.

Between the end of the original series and the Star Trek animated series and feature films, Nichelle Nichols appeared in small television and film roles.

Nichelle Nichols appeared in animated form as one of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers in the "Anthology of Interest I" episode of Futurama, and she provided the voice of her own head in a glass jar in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before".

Nichelle Nichols voiced the recurring role of Elisa Maza's mother Diane Maza in the animated series Gargoyles, and played Thoth-Kopeira in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.

Nichelle Nichols served as executive producer and choreographer, and sang three songs in the film, two of which she composed.

Nichelle Nichols was twice nominated for the Chicago theatrical Sarah Siddons Award for Best Actress.

Nichelle Nichols played a recurring role on the second season of the NBC drama Heroes.

Nichelle Nichols portrayed Nana Dawson, the matriarch of a New Orleans family financially and personally devastated by Hurricane Katrina, who cares for her orphaned grandchildren and her great-nephew, series regular Micah Sanders.

In 2008, Nichelle Nichols starred in the film The Torturer, playing the role of a psychiatrist.

Nichelle Nichols received her first Daytime Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series" category for this role March 22,2017.

Nichelle Nichols began this work by making an affiliation between NASA and a company which she helped to run, Women in Motion.

An enthusiastic advocate of space exploration, Nichelle Nichols served from the mid-1980s on the board of governors of the National Space Institute, a nonprofit, educational space advocacy organization.

In late 2015, Nichelle Nichols flew aboard NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy Boeing 747SP, which analyzed the atmospheres of Mars and Saturn on an eight-hour, high-altitude mission.

Nichelle Nichols was a special guest at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on July 17,1976, to view the Viking 1 soft landing on Mars.

Nichelle Nichols said the affair ended well before Star Trek began, when she realized Roddenberry was involved with her acquaintance Majel Hudec.

When Roddenberry's health was fading, Nichelle Nichols co-wrote a song for him, entitled "Gene", which she sang at his funeral.

Johnson and Nichelle Nichols had one child together, Kyle Johnson, who was born August 14,1951.

Nichelle Nichols married for the second time, to Duke Mondy, in 1968.

Nichelle Nichols' younger brother, Thomas, was a member of the Heaven's Gate cult.

On February 29,2012, Nichelle Nichols met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Nichelle Nichols later tweeted about the meeting, "Months ago, [President] Obama was quoted as saying that he'd had a crush on me when he was younger," Nichols wrote.

In early 2018, Nichelle Nichols was diagnosed with dementia, and subsequently announced her retirement from convention appearances.

That dispute and a 2019 court case by Bell over being evicted from the guesthouse on Nichelle Nichols' property were both ongoing as of August 2021.

Nichelle Nichols died of heart failure in Silver City, New Mexico, on July 30,2022, at the age of 89.

Nichelle Nichols's ashes are due to be sent into space alongside Majel Barrett's and Douglas Trumbull's.

In 1999, Nichelle Nichols was awarded a Goldene Kamera for.

Nichelle Nichols received The Life Career Award, from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, in 2016, the first woman to receive it.

Nichelle Nichols was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.