LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton is an actor, director, producer, and podcaster whose decades-long body of work includes Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow.

LeVar Burton has been capturing the attention of admiring audiences and industry peers for three decades, and continues to enjoy a career longevity truly rare within the industry. Whether acting, directing, producing or writing, Burton has demonstrated that he can do it all.

As if following some implausible Hollywood scenario, Burton’s first professional audition, while pursuing his undergraduate studies at USC, led to his being cast as “Kunta Kinte” in the acclaimed miniseries Roots. The phenomenal success of Roots launched his career as an actor, and more importantly, earned his performance as “Kunta Kinte” a lasting status as a worldwide icon representing the indomitability of the human spirit.

What followed were starring roles in a string of television movies, including One in a Million: The Ron Leflore Story, Dummy, Grambling’s White Tiger, The Guyana Tragedy and A Roots Christmas: Kunta Kinte’s Gift. Among his early feature film credits are Looking for Mr. Goodbar with acclaimed writer/director Richard Brooks, and Steve McQueen’s final motion picture, The Hunter.

LeVar Burton

An avowed science fiction buff as well as a devoted fan of the unique vision of Gene Rodenberry, Burton has directed numerous episodes of all four Star Trek series: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, and considers his longtime association with the Star Trek franchise nothing short of a dream come true.

Growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Burton remembers it as a time “rare to encounter portrayals of people who looked like [him] represented in the popular culture.” Having both appeared in and directed a plethora of Trek incarnations over the years, he adamantly adheres to his optimistic point of view of the future, saying, “I’m betting on our ultimate success at rising to our highest level of human expression.”

He is the honored recipient of six NAACP Awards, a Peabody, a Grammy, and 15 Emmys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Inaugural Children’s & Family Emmys.

A lifelong literacy advocate, Burton recently partnered with Osmo’s Reading Adventure, an innovative technology that uses speech recognition and digital storytelling to teach children to read. His first documentary, The Right to Read, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February 2023.

LeVar Burton continues to exercise his passion for storytelling as the award-winning author of Aftermath, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, and A Kids Book About Imagination. He launched his first bookclub with Fable, a digital book club community, and partnered with Masterclass, to share the power of storytelling.

His production company, LeVar Burton Entertainment (LBE), develops projects in the film, television, podcasting, and publishing space with the mission to share stories that fosters empathy, champions diversity, and builds community.

Now in its 11th season, the enormously popular LeVar Burton Reads podcast has over 175 episodes in its catalog, boasting 25M downloads. LBE’s first Kids & Family podcast, Sound Detectives, will debut on Stitcher in July of 2023.

As a pop culture icon, Burton has the unique ability to reach across all ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic groups – communicating to a large fan base that is highly engaged and motivated to embrace his message.

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