About LeVar Burton
An American actor and children's television host, LeVar Burton is best known for his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and as host of "Reading Rainbow". He joined a seminary to become a priest when he was 13 years old, but later had doubts about his religion. He first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries "Roots", based on the novel by Alex Haley. He made his acting debut in 1976 with "Almos' a Man". He has also directed a number of television episodes for various iterations of "Star Trek", among other programs. As recent news, Jeopardy! fans have started a petition to make LeVar Burton the show's new host, and it seems as though Burton is on board.
Famous For
- Being an American actor and children's television host.
- For his role as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and as host of Reading Rainbow.
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Early Life of LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton took birth with the real name or full name of LeVar Jorge Marcus Burton on 16th February 1957 in Landstuhl, West Germany whereas he was raised in Sacramento, California. He holds a German nationality and German-American ethnicity. Analogously, he is from the Roman Catholic religion. He happily celebrates his birthday on 16th February of every year and he had celebrated his 63rd birthday as of 2020. His mother, Erma Gene (nee Christian), was a social worker, administrator, and educator through his father and namesake, Charles Burton, was a photographer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps at the time he was stationed at Landstuhl. Burton has two sisters, Letitia and Valencia. At seventeen, Burton graduated with the class of 1975 from the Philadelphia School of Arts. Burton then went on to obtain his cinematography degree from Drexel University in 2019.
Career of LeVar Burton
- LeVar Burton kicks off his acting career in 1976 with "Almos' a Man" as well as starred in the ABC miniseries "Roots" as the young Kunta Kinte in 1977.
- After then, he was seen in the 1988 television film "Roots: The Gift" and played a role as a visitor to "Fantasy Island" also accepted an invitation to host "Rebop".
- He was the host and executive producer of "Reading Rainbow" starting in 1983 for PBS which was went off the air in 2006, so Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring back "Reading Rainbow" on 28th May 2014 which has since raised over $5 million, reaching triple its goal in only three days.
- He was sued by the public broadcasting company WNED-TV for alleged copyright infringement in 2017, RRKIDZ is now known as LeVar Burton Kids and the iPad app is now called Skybrary.
- He was also approached with the role of the then Lieutenant Junior Grade Geordi La Forge in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" television series in 1986 as well as started out serving as the USS "Enterprise's" helmsman and also portrayed La Forge in the subsequent feature films based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", beginning with "Star Trek Generations" (1994) through to "Star Trek: Nemesis" (2002).
- As well, he has 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 has portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 2001 film "Ali" as well as portrayed Detroit Tiger Ron LeFlore in the television movie "One in a Million", "The Ron LeFlore Story".
- Besides, he has lent his voice to several animated projects, including Kwame in the cartoon series "Captain Planet and the Planeteers" (1990-1993) and "The New Adventures of Captain Planet" (1993-1996), "Family Guy", "Batman: The Animated Series" and "Gargoyles".
- He starred several times as a celebrity guest on the Dick Clark-hosted "$25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids", from 1982 until 1988 also hosted an executive producer of a documentary titled "The Science of Peace".
- 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" in February 2011.
- He starred as a fictionalized, humorous version of himself on "The Big Bang Theory" as well as appeared on the TNT series "Perception" as dean Paul Haley in 2012.
- He began a podcast titled "LeVar Burton Reads" in 2017.
- He has also written books; Aftermath, and The Rhino Who Swallowed in a Storm.
Directing Career
- LeVar has directed more "Star Trek" episodes than any other former regular cast member whereas he has also directed episodes of "Charmed", "JAG", "Las Vegas", and "Soul Food: The Series", as well as the miniseries "Miracle's Boys" and the biopic "The Tiger Woods Story".
- His first theatrical film direction was "Blizzard" (2003)
- As well, he directed the 1999 Disney Channel Original Movie "Smart House".
- It was revealed that he will sit in the director's chair for the "Two-Front War" from Lou Reda Productions in August 2020.
- Furthermore, as a piece of fresh news, Jeopardy! fans have started a petition to make LeVar Burton the show's new host, and it seems as though Burton is on board. Most recently, people have rallied behind LeVar Burton, who is already a household name after hosting Reading Rainbow for 20 years, starring in "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and having several cameos in shows like "The Big Bang Theory" and "Community".
Awards and Achievements of LeVar Burton
- Television Critics Association Award - Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
- Chicago International Children's Film Festival -Best of Fest
- Daytime Emmy - Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series
- Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album
- Image Award -variously - Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series and Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special
- Peabody Award
Personal Life of LeVar Burton
Reflecting on LeVar Burton's personal life, he is a married guy. He was married to a professional make-up artist, Stephanie Cozart-Burton in 1992. The actor has remained loyal to his wife and both seem extremely happy in their domestic life. She's supportive of him and the profession that he is in. There's much love between the two. LeVar is not only an actor but he is also a father too. He has two children, a daughter, Michaela Jean Burton, and a son, Eian Burton. Furthermore, regarding his sexual orientation, he is straight. Burton joined the board of directors for the AIDS Research Alliance, a non-profit, medical research organization dedicated to finding a cure for AIDS in 2012.
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Net Worth of LeVar Burton
Moving towards LeVar Burton's net worth, his worth is around $6 million as of 2020 whereas he has also a handsome amount of salary too which is also in millions of dollars per year. He has earned a considerable amount of money from his acting career through his main source of income is from acting as well as directing career. He is sincere in his work and he is doing all of his hard work for himself and his family though he is also focusing on a much victorious career. Burton has not done any endorsement work yet.
Body Measurement of LeVar Burton
The height of a handsome actor, LeVar Burton is about 5 ft 8 inches, and his weight around 160 lbs. He has unarguably accomplished a decent height career-wise. He has attracted a lot of people towards him through his awesome appearance. He has also maintained his shape over the years with regular exercise it seems. Blessed with great height and physique, he still carries the aura to rock the shirtless avatar. He is a graceful guy with black eyes and black hair though his body build type is average.
