From Wikipedia: Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr., professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, presenter, director, producer, and author. Burton is best known for his roles as the young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and as the host and executive producer of the long-running PBS children’s program Reading Rainbow.