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 series Reading Rainbow.

On May 28, 2014, Burton and numerous coworkers from other past works started a Kickstarter campaign project to bring Reading Rainbow back. To keep with the changing formats that young children are exposed to, his efforts are being directed at making this new program web-based following the success of the tablet app 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. The Kickstarter campaign has since raised over $3M, reaching triple its goal in only 3 days.

Learn more about him in this informative biography!