LeVar Burton
| LeVar Burton | |
|---|---|
Burton in April 2014
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| Born |
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. February 16, 1957 Landstuhl, West Germany |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | LeVar Burton |
| Occupation | Actor, director, author |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse(s) | Stephanie Cozart Burton (m. 1992–present) |
| Children | Eian Burton Michaela Jean Burton |
| Awards | See Awards |
| Website | levarburton |
Levardis Robert Martyn "LeVar" Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, presenter, director, and author. He is best known for his roles as the host of the long-running PBS children's series Reading Rainbow, Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots. He has also directed a number of television episodes for various iterations of Star Trek, among other programs.
Burton was born to American parents at the U.S. Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in West Germany. His mother, Erma Gene (née Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator. His father, Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps at the time he was stationed at Landstuhl. Burton and his two sisters were raised by his mother in Sacramento, California. Burton was raised Roman Catholic and, at the age of thirteen, entered St. Pius X seminary in Galt, California, to become a priest.
Burton attended St. Pius X Seminary in Galt and graduated in the class of 1974. While in seminary, he read works by the philosophers Lao-Tzu, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard which caused him to question the Catholic dogma that Catholicism is the only true religion. At seventeen, Burton left the seminary to enroll at the University of Southern California with a drama scholarship. While at the University of Southern California, Burton was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California's School of Theatre.
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