LeVar Burton

Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, presenter, director, and author. He is best known for his roles as the young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 awardwinning ABC television miniseries Roots, Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in Star Trek The Next Generation, and as the host of the longrunning PBS childrens series Reading Rainbow. He has also directed a number of television episodes.

Burton was born to American parents at the U.S. Army Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in West Germany. His mother, Erma Jean , 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 Catholic and, at the age of thirteen, entered St. Pius X seminary in Galt, California to become a priest.

Source: Wikipedia