In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," LeVar Burton plays the blind Lieutenant Geordi La Forge. "He's been blind since birth, but 'sees' through the use of the VISOR (Visual Input Sensory Optical Reflector) he wears over his eyes. In fact, I am told that my character is named after a disabled 'Star Trek' fan who passed away," explains LeVar.

LeVar presently serves as host and series producer of "Reading Rainbow," the highly-acclaimed Emmy Award-winning series on PBS, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. This year, the series earned yet another Emmy Award in the category of "Outstanding Children's Series," as well as an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance in a Youth or Children's Series/Special.

During the sixth season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," LeVar made his directorial debut with the episode entitled "Second Chances." He continued his directing career with the seventh season episode entitled "The Pegasus." As the president of Eagle Nation Films, LeVar is currently developing projects for film and television, some of which he will direct as well as produce.

After applying for and winning a scholarship to USC, LeVar began working toward a degree in drama and fine arts. During his sophomore year he auditioned for his Emmy-winning role as Kunta Kinte in the award-winning miniseries, "Roots."

Following "Roots," LeVar starred in a variety of television movies including the Emmy-nominated "Dummy,” "One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story," "Grambling's White Tiger," "The Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones," "Battered," "Billy: Portrait of a Street Kid," "A Roots Christmas: Kunta Kinte's Gift" and the miniseries "Libery." Among his feature film credits are "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," "The Hunter" with Steve McQueen and "The Supernaturals."

LeVar recently starred in the ABC made-for-television movie "Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland" and has just finished production on the upcoming Showtime movie "Parallel Lives." Produced and directed by Linda Yellen, "Parallel Lives" is a follow-up project to last year's highly-acclaimed "Chantilly Lace." The movie will premiere this spring at the Sundance Film Festival before being entered in jury competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Burton on his favorite episode:

``Choosing my favorite or most memorable episode is a difficult assignment. For obvious reasons, "Second Chances" and "The Pegasus", the episodes which I have directed, occupy
a special place in my heart. Most memorable...crawling around the mud pit trying to find the VISOR in the episode called "The Enemy" comes to mind. All in all though, I would have to say some of the Holodeck shows are among my most favorite episodes. In particular, "Elementary Dear Data", "Qpid" and "Hollow Pursuits". After wearing our "space suits" day in and day out and being so serious so much of the time, it was always fun to put on those great costumes
and play!''