From 2017 until 2024, Burton created and hosted the podcast LeVar Burton Reads,[7][8] often described as "Reading Rainbow for adults".[9] In October 2024 Burton appeared as the host of the Trivial Pursuit television game show broadcast on The CW network and streaming online.[10]
Early life
Burton was born in Landstuhl, West Germany.[2][3] His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian),[11] was a social worker, administrator, and educator.[3] Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California, United States.[12]
As a teen, Burton, who was raised Catholic,[18] entered St. Pius X Minor Seminary in Galt, California, intending to become a priest.[19] At the age of 17, questioning the Catholic faith, he changed his vocation to acting and, at 19, while an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, he won a starring role in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.[18]
He reprised the role of Kunta Kinte in the 1988 television film Roots: The Gift. When asked about the societal influence of Roots, 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. And if you throw a pebble into the pond, you're going to get ripples. 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."[23]
Burton was the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow starting in 1983 for PBS.[24] The series ran for 23 seasons.
After Reading Rainbow went off the air in 2006, Burton and his business partner, Mark Wolfe, acquired the global rights to the brand[25] and formed RRKIDZ, a new media company for children. Reading Rainbow was reimagined as an all new application for the iPad in 2012, and was an immediate success, becoming the number-one educational application within 36 hours. At RRKIDZ, 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.[26]
On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back Reading Rainbow. To keep with the changing formats to which young children are exposed, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web based, following the success of the tablet application he helped create in recent years. His 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.[27] The Kickstarter campaign has since raised more than $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.[28]
In 2017, 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.[29] RRKIDZ later became known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app, Skybrary.[30]
In 1986, Gene Roddenberry approached Burton with the role of Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The character is blind but is granted "sight" through the use of a prosthetic device called a VISOR worn over his eyes. La Forge began as the USS Enterprise's helmsman, and as 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 Reading Rainbow. When the show premiered, the Associated Press stated that Burton's role was essentially the "new Spock".[31] In a 2019 interview, Burton laughed in disbelief at the idea, stating "that speculation never came to fruition."[32] Burton also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on Star Trek: The Next Generation, from Star Trek Generations (1994) to Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He 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. He reprised the role of LaForge in the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard (2023).[33]
Podcast: LeVar Burton Reads
In 2017, Burton began a podcast, LeVar Burton Reads. Each 30-45-minute episode features Burton reading a piece of short fiction and sharing his thoughts on it.[34] In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic,[35] he continued to read on his podcast and also gave live readings three times a week during a Twitter livestream focused at different times to different children, young adults, and adult audiences.[36]
In reviews, the podcast is often described as "Reading Rainbow for adults".[9] Since its launch, LeVar Burton Reads has won favorable reviews, in The New Yorker and elsewhere[37][7][9] and numerous awards, including the 2023 Webby Award for Best Art and Culture Podcast. Burton's five-word Webby acceptance speech was: "Be a better person. Read."[38]
In 2023, Burton launched a second podcast, this time for children, called Sound Detectives.[39]
Burton accepted an invitation to host Rebop, a multicultural series designed for young people aged 9–15, produced by WGBH for PBS.
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. He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film Ali. He also portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie One in a Million, The Ron LeFlore Story.
Burton appeared several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, from 1982 until 1988. Burton also was the strongest link in the special Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. He 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 (it was later surpassed by a $188,500 win in a "Tournament of Losers" episode).
He has made appearances in such sitcoms as Becker.
Burton is the host and executive producer of a documentary titled The Science of Peace, which was in production as of 2007. It investigates the science and technology aimed at enabling world peace, sometimes called peace science. The film explores some of the concepts of shared noetic consciousness, having been sponsored in part by the Institute of Noetic Sciences.[41]
He appeared in an April Fool's episode of Smosh pretending to have taken over the channel and making various edits at popular Smosh videos.[42]
In 2010, Burton made an appearance on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! as the ghost of himself in the episode "Greene Machine". In February 2011, he made an appearance as himself on NBC's Community in the episode "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", and then again in January 2014's "Geothermal Escapism".
Burton has appeared as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on The Big Bang Theory, first appearing in the episode "The Toast Derivation", in which he almost attends a party thrown by Sheldon (before swearing off Twitter), in November 2012 in the episode "The Habitation Configuration", in which he appears on "Fun With Flags" in exchange for lunch and gas money, and again in the November 2014 episode "The Champagne Reflection", in which he returns for the 232nd episode of "Fun With Flags" in exchange for Sheldon deleting his contact details.
In 2012, he had a recurring role as dean Paul Haley on the TNT series Perception. For the second season (2013), he became part of the regular cast.
In 2014, he had a guest appearance in an introduction section for the 200th episode of Achievement Hunter's show, Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU). In May 2014, he appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel SciShow, explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows. Late in 2014, he had another guest appearance on a 24-hour Extra Life, a fundraising organization for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, stream by Rooster Teeth. Burton has also taped a recycling field trip for YouTube.
Burton served as a guest host on Jeopardy! from July 26 to 30, 2021.[44] This came after a petition asking the show's producers to select him was signed by more than 250,000 fans.[45] The ratings during his appearance were below average due to tapering audience curiosity and forced viewership competition with NBC's coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which trampled syndicated shows across the board.[46] He 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.[47] According to Burton, Richards also claimed to have no interest in hosting the show himself even though this was disproven by later events.[48][49] However, he would later say that the experience taught him that there is a "perfect nature of all things".[50]
Burton also teaches the "Power of Storytelling" in the MasterClass.[51]
Directing
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Burton directed episodes for each of the various Star Trek series then in production. He has directed more Star Trek episodes than any other former regular cast member.[52]
Burton was an alternate board director in 2000[56] and was elected to the board of directors for the Directors Guild of America in 2005[57] and re-elected in 2007.[58]
Burton does not identify with any religion, saying: "I walked away from the seminary, I walked away from Catholicism, I walked away from organized religion because I felt that there was more for me to explore in the world, and that I could do that without adhering to one specific belief system or another."[64]
In 2012, Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS.[65]
In 2016, Burton was one of the five inaugural honorees to the Sacramento Walk of Stars.[66] In 2019, Councilmember Larry Carr, representing the Meadowview neighborhood, led the renaming of Richfield Park to LeVar Burton Park in his honor. The park is in the Meadowview neighborhood, near the house where Burton and his sisters grew up.[67]
1977: Emmy – Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a Drama or Comedy Series – Roots[22] (Part 1, "Kunta Kinte")
1998, 2001, 2005: Image Awards variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special — Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
2004: Genie Award – Best Achievement in Music-Original Song – Blizzard (Co-composer "Center of My Heart")
2006: Black Reel Award – Best Director-Television – Miracle's Boys
Wins
1990: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7030 Hollywood Boulevard for television achievement
1992: Peabody Award – Reading Rainbow (as executive producer of episode, "The Wall")
1994, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003: Image Award – variously for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special – Reading Rainbow (both as Self and as Executive Producer)
^"The Lifetime Achievement Award is usually presented to an individual for their contributions to genre entertainment. Top luminaries like Stan Lee and Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock himself, have received this top honor. It's not new, but we extended this award to cover the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, due to its continued influence on the face of general television. It was originally doomed to failure since it was following in the footsteps of the original Star Trek, yet it carved its own identity, and its diverse cast was light years ahead of its time!" —Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films[75]
^ abc"Celebrity Q&A: Burton's Background". Salt Lake City, Utah. Associated Press. May 18, 1993. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020 – via The Deseret News. Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. was born Feb. 16, 1957, in Landsthul [sic], Germany. (His father, a career Army man, was stationed there.)
a"[Sacramento is] my hometown, my home base. It's where I grew up. I was born in Landstuhl, Germany in '57, came to Sacramento in '59 — we lived in Glen Elder — then went back to [Germany] in '64, then [returned to Sacramento] in '66. My parents split up during [my military father's] second tour of duty when I was in the third or fourth grade. So my mom, my sisters and I settled in West Sacramento, in Broderick. Then we moved to South Sacramento when I was in the sixth grade — St. Anne's Elementary."
^ ab"Fathers and Sons". Finding Your Roots. Season 10. Episode 3. January 16, 2024.
^State, Arkansas Office of the Secretary of (May 1, 1893). "Report" – via Google Books.
^@levarburton (June 7, 2019). "Didn't attend a Christian Brothers School" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020 – via Twitter. "I went to St. Pius X Seminary & Prep in Galt. It was run by SDS actually, Society of the Divine Savior."
^Lee, Leslie (director) (1976). Richard Wright's Almos' a Man (VHS). Monterey Home Video.
^Burton, LeVar (November 7, 2018). "LeVar Burton on Pursuing the Priesthood Before Acting" (Interview). Interviewed by Lola Fadulu. The Atlantic. Retrieved July 26, 2020. My first day as an actor, Cicely Tyson played my mother, Maya Angelou played my grandmother.
Nishikawa, Kinohi. "LeVar Burton". The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey Jr., 5 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 219.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to LeVar Burton.
.jpg)
