Levar Burton as Kunta Kinte

Levar Burton poses as the slave Kunta Kinte in the 1977 TV series Roots. He was nominated for an Emmy for his role in the show, which won nine Emmys and was one of the most heralded TV miniseries of the 1970s. Burton later hosted the TV series Reading Rainbow and played USS Enterprise crew member Geordi La Forge on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94).