LeVar Burton

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and children's television host. He is known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries Roots (1977), Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and as host of the PBS Kids educational television series Reading Rainbow for more than 23 years (1983–2006), for which he has received 12 Daytime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award as host and executive producer of the show.

LeVar Burton at GalaxyCon Richmond in 2020

Quotes

• I personally believe that education is the key to freedom. Actually, literacy is the key to freedom because you can educate yourself.
  • LeVar Burton, quoted in Fadulu, Lola (November 7, 2018). "LeVar Burton on Pursuing the Priesthood Before Acting" The Atlantic. Retrieved on 2022-02-26.

• My life was changed forever. My first day as an actor, Cicely Tyson played my mother, Maya Angelou played my grandmother. I was 19, and they embraced me as a peer. They schooled me. They certainly taught me what it meant to be a professional, but they assumed that because I was there I belonged there, and they treated me as such. It was an extraordinary experience for a young person.
  • LeVar Burton, about acting in Roots, quoted in Fadulu, Lola (November 7, 2018). "LeVar Burton on Pursuing the Priesthood Before Acting" The Atlantic. Retrieved on 2022-02-26.

• I wouldn’t want to be a young and emerging talent in today’s environment of the 24-hour news cycle and social media and a camera in everyone’s hand. I can’t imagine how much that adds to the burden of the journey.

• • Levar Burton, about acting at age 19 and 40 years later what advice he would give his younger self, quoted in Martoccio, Angie (November 26, 2021). “https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/levar-burton-last-word-interview-jeopardy-star-trek-1245262/” Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2022-11-13