LeVar Burton made his acting debut with ‘Almos' a Man,’ a film based on the Richard Wright short story ‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man’ in 1976. The following year, he received a starring role in the TV miniseries ‘Roots.’ He portrayed the young Kunta Kinte in the series. This role earned him a nomination for an Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in a Drama or Comedy Series category.
From 1982 until 1988, LeVar Burton appeared as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted TV game show ‘$25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids’ multiple times. He also participated in the special ‘Star Trek’ episode of the TV game show ‘The Weakest Link,’ and ended up winning $167,500 for his charity, Junior Achievement of Southern California.
In 1983, LeVar Burton began hosting the educational children’s TV series ‘Reading Rainbow.’ The show was a major hit and ran for 23 seasons. LeVar Burton began portraying Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ TV series in 1986. In the ensuing years, he reprised the role in the feature films based on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ including ‘Star Trek Generations’ (1994) and ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’ (2002). Burton also directed two episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation'.
In 1987, LeVar Burton played Dave Robinson, a journalist, in the 3rd season of ‘Murder, She Wrote.’ In the 1990s, he voiced many animated characters, including Kwame in the cartoon series ‘Captain Planet and the Planeteers’ (1990-93) and ‘The New Adventures of Captain Planet’ (1993-96). He portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the biographical sports drama film ‘Ali’ in 2001.
In 2010, LeVar Burton participated in the Consumer Electronics Show. The same year, he made an appearance in the TV series ‘Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!’ as his own ghost in the episode ‘Greene Machine.’ He appeared as himself in NBC's TV show ‘Community’ in the episode ‘Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking’ in 2011.
LeVar Burton appeared as a guest on the YouTube channel ‘SciShow,’ explaining the science behind double, tertiary, and quaternary rainbows, in 2014. Later the same year, he appeared in ‘24-hour Extra Life,’ a fundraising stream by the Children's Miracle Network hospitals organization.
LeVar Burton launched a podcast titled ‘LeVar Burton Reads’ in 2017. He reads a short story in each episode and also gives live readings on different themes thrice a week. He appeared as himself in the TV show ‘The Eric Andre Show’ in 2020. He served as a guest host on the TV game show ‘Jeopardy!’ from July 26 to July 30, 2021. Currently, he also teaches the ‘Power of Storytelling’ on the online educational platform MasterClass.
As the eighth film in the popular science-fiction Star Trek series, Star Trek: First Contact sees Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-E crew travel back in time to 2063 to stop the evil plans of cybernetic Borg and ensure Zefram Cochrane's warp drive flight. This movie has plenty of adventure, drama and action that is expected from a Star Trek franchise film.
The movie, a biopic, presents a crucial decade – 1964 to 1974 – of the life of Muhammad Ali. It begins as Cassius Clay, a young boxer, emerges victorious in world heavyweight championship and continues as he converts to Islam, refuses to fight in the Vietnam War, is barred from boxing and finally fights against George Foreman to reclaim the Heavyweight Championship.
This romantic drama film tells the story of a dedicated schoolteacher, who looks to have violent sexual encounters, in order add spice to her ordinary life. She spends her night visiting bars, hoping to find abusive men who can give her what she wants.
During a rescue mission to save two El-Aurian ships, Captain James T. Kirk is left behind in an energy field and presumed dead while trying to save the USS Enterprise-B. Years later, when one of the survivors Dr. Soran decides to exploit the energy field again, it is up to Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-D to stop him.
When Capt. Picard discovers an energy reading he decides to land on Romulan and negotiate a peace deal with its new Praetor Shinzon. There he learns that Shinzon is his clone, created to be planted as spy in the Federation. To survive, he now needs Picard’s blood. His ship also produces low levels of deadly thalaron radiation, which can destroy Earth.
Lieutenant Commander Data of the USS Enterprise-E is sent on an undercover mission to Ba’ku, but soon develops a malfunction and goes rogue. When Enterprise Captain Picard and his crew decide to capture Data, they encounter violent opposition from a joint Federation–Son'a task force that wants to remove all the inhabitants of Ba’ku.
Ralph is a bounty hunter who has been receiving death threats from a criminal whom he had helped put away long back. Things get even worse as his pregnant girlfriend is also targeted.
Bruce Wayne is a millionaire businessman who lives in Gotham City, but people are unaware that at night, he assumes the role of a crime-fighting vigilante superhero: the caped crusader Batman. With the assistance of Robin and Barbara Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Gordon, he works to protect Gotham City from various criminals and lunatics such as The Joker and Killer Croc.
During a severe economic depression in the US, Lex Luthor manages to become the President of the United States. He manages to assemble a team of superheroes, and despite their enthusiasm for maintaining peace, Superman and Batman still maintain their distrust. When Metallo, one of the superheroes working for Luthor gets killed, Luthor puts the blame on Superman, and puts a one billion-dollar bounty on his head.
LeVar Burton Awards
| Winner | Best Spoken Word Album | 2000 |
