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Black Women In Star Trek

In detail view, you will see the Star Trek character portrayed. Enterprise - Discovery - Short Treks - Strange New Worlds The Original Series - The Animated Series The Next Generation - Deep Space Nine - Voyager Lower Decks - Prodigy - Picard Star Trek Movies Information Credit: Memory Alpha | Daystrom Institute - Peace and Long Life

1. Nichelle Nichols

Actress | Star Trek

Nichelle Nichols was one of 10 children born to parents Lishia and Samuel Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. She was a singer and dancer before turning to acting and finding fame in her groundbreaking role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek (1966) series. As long as she could remember,...

Star Trek: The Original Series (TV Series) Uhura / Lt. Uhura Star Trek: Renegades (TV Series) Admiral Grace Jemison Star Trek First Frontier Nyota Uhura

2. Whoopi Goldberg

Actress | Ghost

Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson in the Chelsea section of Manhattan on November 13, 1955. Her mother, Emma (Harris), was a teacher and a nurse, and her father, Robert James Johnson, Jr., was a clergyman. Whoopi's recent ancestors were from Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. She worked in...

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Guinan Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Guinan (Farewell - The Star Gazer)

3. Sonequa Martin-Green

Actress | Star Trek: Discovery

Sonequa Martin-Green (born March 21, 1985) is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her television role as Sasha Williams on The Walking Dead, a role she played from 2012 to 2017. Before that, she had starred in several independent films before gaining her first recurring role as ...

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Michael Burnham / Cmdr. Michael Burnham

4. Tawny Newsome

Actress | Space Force

Tawny Newsome is know for playing Angela Ali in Netflix's Space Force, Ensign Beckett Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Gabby in IFC's Brockmire, and Chelsea Leight-Leigh in Pluto's Bajillion Dollar Properties. You may have also caught her in fun comedies like NBC's Superstore, IFC's Sherman's ...

Star Trek: Lower Decks (TV Series) Ensign Beckett Mariner Pakled Delegate

5. Michelle Hurd

Actress | Blindspot

Michelle Hurd was born in New York City, New York, USA. Michelle is an actor and producer, known for Blindspot (2015), Star Trek: Picard (2020) and The Glades (2010). Michelle has been married to Garret Dillahunt since July 6, 2007.

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Raffi Musiker

6. Celia Rose Gooding

Actress | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Celia Rose Gooding is an American actress and singer. They made their Broadway debut and rose to prominence for the role of Mary Frances "Frankie" Healy in the rock musical Jagged Little Pill for which they won a 2021 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and was nominated for a 2020 Tony ...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV Series) Cadet Nyota Uhura

7. Dawnn Lewis

Actress | A Different World

Dawnn Lewis was born August 13, 1961. She is remembered mostly from her role as Jaleesa Vinson on A Different World (1987). Dawnn composed the theme song with Bill Cosby and Stu Gardner that was used for the series. She left the show in 1992 to join the cast of Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992) as ...

Star Trek: Lower Decks (TV Series) Captain Carol Freeman

8. Oyin Oladejo

Oyin Oladejo was born in Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria. She is known for Star Trek: Discovery (2017), Endlings (2020) and Orah (2023).

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Lt. Joann Owosekun / Joann Owosekun

9. Raven Dauda

Actress | Murder at 1600

Raven Dauda is known for Murder at 1600 (1997), Greta (2018) and Bulletproof Monk (2003).

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Dr. Tracy Pollard / Dr. Pollard

10. Penny Johnson Jerald

Actress | 24

Penny Johnson Jerald is an American actress. She played Beverly Barnes on the HBO comedy series The Larry Sanders Show, Kasidy Yates on the syndicated science fiction series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sherry Palmer on the Fox series 24, Captain Victoria "Iron" Gates on the ABC comedy-drama series ...

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Dobara (Homeward) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Kasidy Yates / Kasidy Yates Sisko / Cassie What We Left Behind: Star Trek DS9 (Documentary) Self

11. Zoe Saldana

Actress | Guardians of the Galaxy

Zoe Saldana was born on June 19, 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey, to Asalia Nazario and Aridio Saldaña. Her father was Dominican and her mother is Puerto Rican. She was raised in Queens, New York. When she was 10 years old, she and her family moved to the Dominican Republic, where they would live for ...

Star Trek Star Trek Into Darkness Star Trek Beyond Uhura/Lieutenant Uhura

12. Aisha Hinds

Actress | The Next Three Days

When Aisha Hinds' junior high school tap dance instructor observed that she needed an outlet for expression that surpassed her tap shoes, she was guided to the High School of Performing Arts in New York - where her formal acting training began. Hinds' numerous television credits include a supporting...

Star Trek Into Darkness Navigation Officer Darwin

13. Alfre Woodard

Actress | Star Trek: First Contact

Alfre Woodard was born on November 8, 1952 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the youngest of three children of Constance, a homemaker, and Marion H. Woodard, an interior designer. She was named by her godmother, who claimed she saw a vision of Alfre's name written out in gold letters. A former high school ...

Star Trek: First Contact Lily

14. Alex Datcher

Actress | Passenger 57

Alex Datcher was born on June 6, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Passenger 57 (1992), The Expert (1995) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Ensign Zandra Taitt (Descent, Part II)

15. Allison Wilson-Forbes

Actress | Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker

Allison Wilson-Forbes was born and raised in Toronto. She is an actress known for Saving Hope (2012) and has appeared in critically acclaimed The Expanse (2015) and most recently Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020). A recent graduate of UCLA's TV Writing Program, she's also ...

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Agent Ymalay (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow)

16. Akua Williams

Self | Kith Park: Spring/Summer 2019 at NYFW

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Akaali citizen (Civilization)

17. Alyma Dorsey

Stunts | The Matrix Resurrections

Alyma started singing opera at 8 years of age which led to her Vocal Performance Degree at Florida State University. After playing on the Junior Olympic volleyball team, Alyma was recruited by Florida State University volleyball team. A budding modeling career soon approached and after graduating, ...

Star Trek: Picard Romulan guard (Broken Pieces) Stargazer security officer (The Stargazer) stunt performer for Michelle Hurd

18. Amirah Vann

Actress | Underground

Amirah Vann was born on June 24, 1980 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Underground (2016), Tracers (2015) and Arcane (2021).

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Zani

19. Andrea Davis

Actress | The Expanse

Andrea Davis is best known for her work in the Amazon Prime hit series The Expanse where she plays Admiral Tesfaye. Andrea is also known for her standout performance as Sal in Thyrone Tommy 's film Learn to Swim (2021) (a 54th NAACP Image Awards (2023) Nominee and an Official Selection of Canada's ...

Star Trek: Short Treks (TV Series short) Teacher (Children of Mars)

20. Anele Lundborg

Actress | The Coroner: I Speak for the Dead

Anele Lundborg is a South African born actor, writer and director based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is best known for her voice over role as Boomer in PlayStations hit game 'Horizon Forbidden West'. She is fluent in three South African languages which was vital for her voice acting on 'Black Panther: ...

Star Trek: Short Treks (TV Series short) Voice (The Girl Who Made the Stars )

21. Angela Meryl

Stunts | Skyfall

Veteran stunt woman and actor. Year after year, Meryl reaps rewards of acknowledgment including a historical two-time, Taurus Award nomination for her performance in the opening scene of Quentin Turentino's blockbuster-- Kill Bill; A Taurus Award for "Best Overall Stunt By A Woman," for the movie ...

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Stunt Performer - The Augments and Borderland

22. Antonette Rudder

Antonette Rudder is known for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022), The Hot Zone (2019) and People of Earth (2016).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Majalan Aide (Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach)

23. April Grace

Actress | Magnolia

April Grace was born in Lakeland, Florida, USA. April is an actor and producer, known for Magnolia (1999), I Am Legend (2007) and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Transporter Technician Maggie Hubbell Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Transporter Technician Maggie Hubbell (Emissary) Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Admiral Sally Whitley (The Star Gazer)

24. Ariel D. King

Actress | American Crime Story

Ariel D King is an actress, model and singer who was born on the 4th of July in Riverdale, Illinois. Ariel was awarded the Hollywood Discovery Award at the Hollywood Film Awards in 2010. She portrayed OJ Simpson's daughter Arnelle Simpson on American Crime Story, an anthology series centered around...

Star Trek Into Darkness Starfleet Civilian

25. Bahia Watson

Actress | The Handmaid's Tale

Bahia Watson was born in Carman, Manitoba, Canada. She grew up in Winnipeg. An actress, artist and storyteller when she is not on stage or in front of the cameras, Bahia is always writing as well as always imagining. A selection of her stage credits include playing the young princess Elizabeth in "...

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) May (Saints of Imperfection - An Obol for Charon - Point of Light - New Eden)

26. Arista Arhin

Actress | Lockdown

Arista Arhin is an Emmy-nominated actress from Toronto, Canada. At the age of 10, Arista decided to pursue her passion for acting. Her first big break came when she was cast as Ozlyn in the award-winning children's live-action educational television series Odd Squad (TVOKids/PBS Kids). Since then, ...

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Young Michael Burnham

27. Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut

Actress | Star Trek: Picard

Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut was born in Gainesville, Florida, USA. She is an actress, known for Star Trek: Picard (2020), Cruel Summer (2021) and The Good Fight (2017).

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Ensign Sidney La Forge

28. Barbara Eve Harris

Actress | FUBAR

Barbara Eve Harris was born in Tobago to Jamaican parents and moved to Canada at the age of 6 with her family. Raised and educated in Ottawa, the national capital, she graduated from the University of Ottawa with a B.A. (concentration in Theatre and Philosophy). The initial plan was for Law School,...

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Emily (Emmy) Bosch (The Impossible Box)

29. Bahni Turpin

Actress | Crossroads

Bahni Turpin was born on June 4, 1962 in Pontiac, Michigan, USA. She is an actress, known for Crossroads (2002), Malcolm X (1992) and Cold Case (2003).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Ensign Swinn / Swinn (Resolutions and Tuvix)

30. Barbara Mamabolo

Deep Impact

Barbara Mamabolo was born in 1986 in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress and writer, known for Deep Impact (1998), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) and Stranger (2017).

Star Trek: Short Treks (TV Series short) Bounty Hunter (The Escape Artist)

Actress | Ass Parade

Bronze was born on December 3, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress.

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Resort woman (aka Erica Samuel) (Darkling)

32. Beverly Hart

Actress | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Beverly Hart is known for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), The Nude Bomb (1980) and X-Ray (1981).

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier High Priestess

33. Breece Wilson

Actress | Brown Sugar

Breece Wilson is known for Brown Sugar (2002).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Vulcan Starfleet cadet

34. Brit Manor

Actress | Ray Donovan

Brit Manor is an actress, dancer, model and recording artist from Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and New York University TISCH School of the Arts in Drama as a University Scholar. Among her film, TV and international theatre credits, Brit ...

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Tough Fuelie (Maps and Legends)

35. Candice Renee

Actress | Star Trek Into Darkness

Candice Renée is an L.A. native who began her acting career at age 12 when she booked her first play while training. After that, there was no turning back. She received an acting degree while in New York and continued to perform on stage. After transitioning to TV/Film, she has landed roles on ...

Star Trek Into Darkness Additional Voices

36. Caprice Crawford

Producer | Fatal Rescue

Caprice Crawford is an American producer and actress based in Berlin. She has been acting and singing in front of the camera since the age of 16. In 1990, she moved to New York City to attend the William Esper Studio, the world's foremost studio dedicated to Meisner based actor training. By 1992, ...

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Bajoran Comfort Woman (Wrongs Darker than Death or Night)

37. Candace Crump

Stunts | Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

Candace Crump is known for Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), The Deep End of the Ocean (1999) and The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Stand-in for Whoopi Goldberg

38. Chelsea Harris

Actress | Snowpiercer

Chelsea Harris was born on March 30, 1990 in Columbus, Georgia, USA. She is an actress, known for Snowpiercer (2020), Designated Survivor (2016) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Dr. Naáshala Kunamadéstifee (Maps and Legends)

39. Chandra Galasso

Actress | Warehouse 13

Chandra Galasso is known for Warehouse 13 (2009), Soft Deceit (1994) and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Lieutenant (Strange New Worlds)

40. Claire Qute

Actress | Lady Ada's Secret Society

Claire QUTE was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. From a very young age, she has been incredibly passionate about acting and filmmaking. Growing up as a biracial girl with big dreams in a small town had its challenges, but she channeled all of her experiences into creative outlets like acting, ...

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Teen May Hologram (New Eden)

41. Cynthia Addai-Robinson

Actress | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Cynthia Addai-Robinson is an English-born actress. She was born in London; her mother is from Ghana and her father is an United States citizen. She moved to US when she was four, and was raised by her mother in a suburb of Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver ...

Star Trek Into Darkness San Francisco Woman

42. Cynthia Graham

Actress | Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force

Cynthia Graham is known for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (2000), The Bernie Mac Show (2001) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Lt. Wheeler (Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges) Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (Video Game) Crewman Elizabeth Laird / Klingon (voice)

43. Daphney Damaraux

Actress | All Night

Daphney Damaraux is known for All Night (2018) and Las Vegas (2003).

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Crewman / Alien Ambassador

44. Darwyn Carson

Actress | True Confessions

Darwyn Carson was born in Ohio, USA. Darwyn is an actor and writer, known for True Confessions (1981), The Last Halloween (1991) and Signs and Wonders (1995).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Romulan Tal Shiar operative ("Improbable Cause")

45. Dawn Stern

Actress | The Sentinel

Dawn earned her B.S. in Theatre Performance from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIU-E) and has been a proud Equity member since 1987. Early in her career she worked in St. Louis and Chicago markets where she earned her AFTRA, AEA, and SAG union cards. Dawn moved to Los Angeles in ...

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Latia Female (Two Days and Two Nights)

46. Davida Williams

Actress | Quantum Leap

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Davida Williams began acting at the age of eight. She began by guest starring in roles on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Star Trek, Sister Sister, Days of Our Lives and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. Her first big screen performance was in Younger & Younger a film ...

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Lisa (Children of Time)

47. Dawn Lovett

Actress | Exit to Eden

Dawn Lovett is known for Exit to Eden (1994).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Klingon bar patron (Preemptive Strike) Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Sikarian (Prime Factors)

48. Deborah Lacey

Actress | Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story

Deborah Lacey was born on September 12, 1956 in South Pasadena, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story (2016), Straight Outta Compton (2015) and Mad Men (2007).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Sarah Sisko / The Face / Sarah (What You Leave Behind - 'Til Death Do Us Part - Penumbra - Shadows and Symbols - Image in the Sand)

49. Deni Tyler

Self | Disney's California Adventure TV Special

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Tyran technician (The Quality of Life)

50. Debra Wilson

Actress | Over the Hedge

Debra Wilson was born on April 26, 1962 in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Over the Hedge (2006), Batman: The Enemy Within (2017) and Scary Movie 4 (2006). She has been married to Cliff Skelton since April 8, 2006.

Star Trek Prodigy Miners (A Moral Star, Part 2 - Lost & Found: Part 1) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Lisa Cusak (The Sound of Her Voice) Star Trek: The Experience - The Klingon Encounter (Short) Security Officer

51. Donna Duplantier

Actress | Bullet to the Head

Is a New Orleans native. Her family's history in the city has been traced back as far as the 1800s. Her father was one of the first African American geologists at Texaco oil and her mother was a nurse for over 30 years throughout the metropolitan city. She graduated from George Mason University ...

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Georgia Tandy Prostitute #2 (Carpenter Street)

52. Elizabeth Goldstein

Actress | How to Be a Player

Elizabeth Goldstein is known for How to Be a Player (1997), Bloomers (2011) and The Stolen Moments of September (2007).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Allantra (Alliances)

53. Etalvia Cashin

Etalvia Cashin is an actress born of French Creole descent - with primary roots from the Ivory Coast of West Africa, she is also a distinctly special mix of Irish, Spanish, & Native American. Originally from Houston Texas, she is a prime example of the Creole woman from the bayous of Southeast ...

Star Trek Starfleet Cadet (uncredited)

54. Faye Barge

Actress | Young & Hungry

Faye Barge is known for Young & Hungry (2014), 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996) and True Jackson, VP (2008).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Stand-in duties were Felecia M. Bell in the episode "Through the Looking Glass", Tina Lifford in the episodes "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II", and Penny Johnson Jerald in episodes such as "The Dogs of War"

55. Felecia M. Bell

Actress | Night Man

Felecia M. Bell was born on June 12, 1960 in Valley Village, California, USA. She is an actress, known for NightMan (1997), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and Smallville (2001).

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Jennifer Sisko (Shattered Mirror - Through the Looking Glass - Emissary What We Left Behind: Star Trek DS9 (Documentary) Self (as 'Felecia Bell Rutkowski')

56. Fran Bennett

Actress | Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Fran Bennett graduated from the University of Wisconsin with an M.A. and subsequently spent twelve years acting and as voice and movement director with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Her Broadway debut was a leading role in the short-lived play Mandingo at the Lyceum Theater in 1961. ...

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Fleet Adm. Shanthi (Redemption II)

57. Gina Ravera

Actress | Showgirls

Gina Ravera was born on May 20, 1966 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Showgirls (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997) and The Great Debaters (2007).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Ensign Tyler (Phantasms)

58. Gabrielle Union

Actress | Bring It On

Gabrielle Union was born on October 29, 1972, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Theresa (Glass), who managed a phone company, and Sylvester E. Union, a military sergeant and business executive. When she was eight, her family moved to Pleasanton, California, where she grew up and attended high school. There, ...

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) N'Garen (Sons and Daughters)

59. Galyn Görg

Actress | RoboCop 2

Galyn Görg was an actress, professional dancer, and producer. She is known as an actress for Point Break (1991), RoboCop 2 (1990) and Judgment Night (1993). Galyn was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Gwyn Gorg (Gwyndolin Lee Görg), is a writer, storyteller, and educator. Her father, Alan ...

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Nori (Warlord) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Korena (The Visitor)

60. Geri-Nikole Love

Actress | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Geri-Nikole Love is an American Actress. Born in Oxfordshire, England on an Air Force Base, she split her childhood in Central Florida and Atlanta, GA. She moved to New York City after high school to obtain a BFA in Theatre at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Since graduating, she became a ...

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Lieutenant Urtern (Farewell - The Star Gazer)

61. Gioya Tuma-Waku

Actress | Star Trek: Short Treks

Gioya Tuma-Waku is a Congolese stage and screen actress who was raised in South Africa before relocating to the US in pursuant of her career. Her love of performance started at a very young age and by age 10 she knew that her passion and future lay in acting. In 2015 she graduated from the American...

Star Trek: Short Treks (TV Series short) Multiple (The Girl Who Made the Stars)

62. Grace Harrell

Actress | Manband! The Movie

Grace Harrell is known for Manband! The Movie (2007), Relationships (2021) and Don't Touch If You Ain't Prayed (2005).

Star Trek: Generations Alien Civilian in Ten Forward (uncredited) Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Operations Division Officer / Waitress Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series) Female Peliar Zel native ((The Maquis, Part I) Holographic Alien Masseuse (A Man Alone) Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Ocampa (Before and After)

63. Golden Brooks

Actress | Girlfriends

Golden Brooks was born on December 1, 1970 in Fresno, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Girlfriends (2000), The Darkest Minds (2018) and Beauty Shop (2005).

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Alicia Travers (Storm Front, Part I and II)

64. Hanelle M. Culpepper

Director | Within

Selected for the inaugural class of 2019 ReFrame Rise directors, Hanelle M. Culpepper is an energetic and unflappable award-winning director whose television credits range from superhero action adventures to thrillers and genre films to character-driven dramas. In 2019, she was chosen to direct the...

Director Star Trek: Discovery Star Trek: Picard

Actress | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Iman was born on July 25, 1955 in Mogadishu, Somalia. She is a producer and actress, known for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), L.A. Story (1991) and No Way Out (1987). She was previously married to David Bowie , Spencer Haywood and Hassan ?.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Martia

66. Isis Carmen Jones

Actress | Sister Act

Isis Carmen Jones is known for Sister Act (1992) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Young Guinan (Rascals)

67. Inez Edwards

Actress | Moonlighting

Inez Edwards is known for Moonlighting (1985), Family Matters (1989) and Talkin' Dirty After Dark (1991).

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Science Division Officer (Frame of Mind - Tapestry) Klingon (Birthright, Part I & II) Klingon Pilgrim (Rightful Heir)

68. Iona Morris

Actress | X-Men

Iona Morris was born on May 23, 1957 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She is an actress and director, known for X-Men: The Animated Series (1992), Robotech: The Movie (1986) and Megazone 23 (1985).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Umali (Workforce Part I & II) Star Trek: The Original Series (TV Series) Little African American Girl (Miri)

69. Jajube Mandiela

Actress | Red Lights

Jajube Mandiela was born and raised, and is based, in Toronto, Canada. Best known for 8 seasons as Chantay on Degrassi, she also voiced Pristine on Crash Canyon and appeared in Disney's Jump In! and feature film Red Lights. On stage, her acting highlights include Blue Planet and El Numero Uno (Young...

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Holo Officer #2 (Die Trying)

70. Ito Aghayere

Ito Aghayere is a Nigerian, Canadian, American born in Alberta, Canada. She is an actress, known for Star Trek: Picard (2022), Carol's Second Act (2019) and Logan Lucky (2017). She graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and received her Master of Fine Arts ...

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Guinan (Mercy - Monsters - Watcher)

71. Jamillah Ross

Actress | Polar

Jamillah Ross is known for Polar (2019), Slumberland (2022) and Firestarter (2022).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Vulcan officiant (in The Broken Cricle)

72. Janelle James

Actress | Black Monday

Janelle James is a New York- and Los Angeles-based comedian who can be seen on The Comedy Lineup on Netflix, Black Monday on Showtime, and Abbott Elementary. James has toured with Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, and David Cross among others, and runs the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival (now the Janelle ...

Star Trek: Lower Decks Katrot (Empathological Fallacies)

73. Janet MacLachlan

Actress | The Thirteenth Floor

Janet MacLachlan was born on August 27, 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Thirteenth Floor (1999), Tick, Tick, Tick (1970) and Heart and Souls (1993). She died on October 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Star Trek: The Original Series (TV Series) Lt. Charlene Masters (The Alternative Factor)

74. Jasmine Akakpo

Actress | Dave

Jasmine Akakpo is known for Dave (2020), Queen Sugar (2016) and Reasonable Doubt (2022).

Star Trek: Picard (TV Series) Titan Ensign (No Win Scenario)

75. Jasmine Pierce

Writer | Saturday Night Live

Jasmine Pierce is known for Saturday Night Live (1975), Lucky Hank (2023) and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014).

Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II (TV Series) Lieutenant Uhura / Uhura

76. Jayne Dineo

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Discovery Sciences Crewmember (Terra Firma, Part 1)

77. Jenifer Lewis

Actress | The Princess and the Frog

Jenifer Lewis is one of Hollywood's most familiar faces, with more than 300 appearances in film and television. Dubbed a "national treasure" by TV Guide.com, Jenifer stars on the hit show Black-ish (ABC), where her hilarious portrayal of "Ruby Johnson" earned her a nomination for the 2016 Critics ...

Star Trek: Lower Decks (TV Series) Bartender (An Embarrassment of Dooplers)

78. Jennifer Gatti

Actress | Star Trek: The Next Generation

Jennifer Gatti was born in Manhattan, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), The Young and the Restless (1973) and Vice Principals (2016).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Libby (Non Sequitur) Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Ba'el (Birthright Part I & II)

79. Jenna Z. Wilson

Actress | Island Prey

Jenna Z. Wilson was born on January 6, 1981 in Long Beach, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Island Prey (2001), Carver (2015) and Beckinfield (2010).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Dancer (Homestead)

80. Jenny Lumet

Writer | Rachel Getting Married

Jenny Lumet was born on February 2, 1967 in New York City, New York, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Rachel Getting Married (2008), The Mummy (2017) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (2021). She has been married to Alexander Weinstein since May 2, 2007. They have one child. She was ...

Producer Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Star Trek: Discovery Star Trek: Picard Writer Star Trek: Short Treks Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Star Trek: Discovery

81. Jenny Itwaru

Actress | xXx: Return of Xander Cage

Jenny Itwaru is known for xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017), The Invisible Man (2020) and Robyn Hood (2023).

Star Trek: Discovery (TV Series) Star Fleet Bridge Crew (The Wolf Inside)

82. Johnetta Anderson

Actress | Rebel Highway

Johnetta Anderson is known for Rebel Highway (1994) and Girls in Prison (1994).

Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Holographic bar patron

83. Jessica Boss

Actress | PostDates

Jessica Boss is an American actress of Nigerian descent. In high school, Jessica was on track to become a medical doctor. That all changed when she had to choose between taking art or theater as an elective class. Since she could only draw stick figures, she decided to take theater, and to her ...

Star Trek Bridgeport Cadet (uncredited)

84. Joan Pringle

Actress | Original Sin

Joan Pringle was born on June 2, 1945 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Original Sin (2001), The White Shadow (1978) and The Lost City (2022). She is married to Vernon L. Bolling. She was previously married to Teddy Wilson .

Star Trek: Enterprise (TV Series) Rianna Mayweather (Horizon)

85. Joni Bovill

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89. Joyce McCoy

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Nichelle Nichols, groundbreaking "Star Trek" star, dies at age 89

Updated on: August 1, 2022 / 7:09 PM EDT / CBS News

Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Uhura on "Star Trek" in a groundbreaking role for Black actresses before going on to help recruit people of color and women for NASA in real life, has died, her representatives confirmed to CBS News. She was 89.

"I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years," her son, Kyle Johnson, posted on Nichols' official Facebook page. Nichols died of natural causes, according to Johnson.

"Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all," he wrote.

Nichols' "Star Trek" costar George Takei tweeted, "my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."

After "Star Trek," Nichols went on to become a recruiter for NASA, playing a key role in helping recruit people of color and female astronauts. 

Ovation TV Premiere Screening Of

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and director Todd Thompson, who both served as executive producers of the documentary "Women in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA," called her story "monumental."   

Nichols portrayed U.S.S. Enterprise communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura on the "Star Trek" television series from 1966-1969. She also reprised the role in six movies from the iconic sci-fi franchise.  

Nichols was one of the first Black actresses to star in a primetime television show, and she and "Star Trek" made history with television's first interracial kiss in 1968.

"She was the third-highest ranking member in the space command," Crump told " CBS Saturday Morning" in 2021 . "I mean, you talk about every little Black boy and girl running to the TV to say, 'hello that's a Black woman, and she's in charge?'"

"Star Trek" suffered from poor ratings during its initial run and, according to "CBS Saturday Morning," Nichols had been contemplating leaving the show after the first season to go to Broadway. But then she met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a devout Trekkie, who pleaded with her to stay, saying it was the only show he watched with his children. 

"He said, 'you don't understand the effect that you're having, not only on Black people, not only on young women, but on everybody,'" she said in the documentary. 

Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk in a scene from

As "Star Trek" became more popular, members of NASA took notice — and had become fans, attending the "Star Trek" conventions. Nichols once gave a speech to members of NASA, and Crump said that she noticed there were no women or minorities in the audience.

"I said, 'where are my people?'" Nichols said in the documentary. "I meant that then and I mean it now."

The head of NASA was in the audience and took notice, offering her the opportunity to recruit for them. Nichols formed the company "Women in Motion," traveling throughout the country to recruit women and people of color for NASA. 

The effort paid off. In 1978, NASA recruited 35 people, including for the first time, six women and four people of color. 

"This might sound a little corny, but it felt like my children," she said in the "Women in Motion" documentary. "And my heart, it pounded. And I knew the world would never be the same again. We would go on to great heights — and to think I had the slightest thing to do with it makes me know that all things good are possible." 

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Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on 'Star Trek,' dies at 89

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black lady on star trek

Nichelle Nichols made history for her role as communications officer Lt. Uhura on Star Trek. CBS via Getty Images hide caption

Nichelle Nichols made history for her role as communications officer Lt. Uhura on Star Trek.

Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known as Star Trek 's communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, died Saturday night in Silver City, New Mexico. She was 89 years old.

"I regret to inform you that a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years," her son Kyle Johnson wrote on the website Uhura.com . "Her light, however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration."

Nichols was one of the first Black women featured in a major television series, and her role as Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original TV series was groundbreaking: an African American woman whose name came from Uhuru, the Swahili word for "freedom."

"Here I was projecting in the 23rd century what should have been quite simple," Nichols told NPR in 2011 . "We're on a starship. I was head communications officer. Fourth in command on a starship. They didn't see this as being, oh, it doesn't happen til the 23rd century. Young people and adults saw it as now."

In 1968, Nichols made headlines when Uhura shared an intimate kiss with Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) in an episode called "Plato's Stepchildren." Their interracial kiss on the lips was revolutionary, one of the first such moments on TV.

Nichelle Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in TV history with William Shatner.

Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols in a Chicago suburb where her father was the mayor. She grew up singing and dancing, aspiring to star in musical theater. She got her first break in the 1961 musical Kicks and Co ., a thinly veiled satire of Playboy magazine. She was the star of the Chicago stock company production of Carmen Jones, and in New York performed in Porgy and Bess .

'To me, the highlight and the epitome of my life as a singer and actor and a dancer/choreographer was to star on Broadway," she told NPR in 2011, adding that as her popularity on Star Trek grew, she was beginning to get other offers. "I decided I was going to leave, go to New York and make my way on the Broadway stage."

Nichols said she went to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek , and announced she was quitting. "He was very upset about it. And he said, take the weekend and think about what I am trying to achieve here in this show. You're an integral part and very important to it."

For MLK Day: 'Lt. Uhura' On How Rev. King Told Her To Stay On 'Star Trek'

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For mlk day: 'lt. uhura' on how rev. king told her to stay on 'star trek'.

So that weekend, she went to an NAACP fundraiser in Beverly Hills and was asked to meet a man who said he was her number one fan: Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He complimented me on the manner in which I'd created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, 'Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you.' He said, 'no, no, no. No, you don't understand. We don't need you ... to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for.' So, I said to him, 'thank you so much. And I'm going to miss my co-stars.'"

"His face got very, very serious," she recalled. "And he said, 'what are you talking about?' And I said, 'well, I told Gene just yesterday that I'm going to leave the show after the first year because I've been offered... And he stopped me and said: 'You cannot do that.' I was stunned. He said, 'don't you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch.' I was speechless."

Nichols returned to the series, which lasted until 1969. She also reprised her famous role in six subsequent feature films, including Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , where Uhura was promoted to commander .

Much More Than A 5-Year Mission: 'Star Trek' Turns 50

Much More Than A 5-Year Mission: 'Star Trek' Turns 50

For years, Nichols also helped diversify the real-life space program, helping to recruit astronauts Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Guion Bluford, and others. And she had her own science foundation, Women in Motion .

"Many actors become stars, but few stars can move a nation," tweeted actress Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s. "Nichelle Nichols showed us the extraordinary power of Black women and paved the way for a better future for all women in media. Thank you, Nichelle. We will miss you."

George Takei, who costarred on Star Trek as helmsman Hikaru Sulu tweeted: "I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise," her wrote. "For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."

He also posted a photo of his longtime friend, both of them flashing the Vulcan greeting, and these words: "We lived long and prospered together."

We lived long and prospered together. pic.twitter.com/MgLjOeZ98X — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 31, 2022

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How Nichelle Nichols broke racial stereotypes on ‘Star Trek’

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women as Lt. Uhura on the “Star Trek” television series, passed on Saturday. ’You’ve changed the face of television forever,’ Martin Luther King, Jr. told her. 

  • By Lindsey Bahr Associated Press

July 31, 2022

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, has died at the age of 89.

Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” Johnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all."

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time.

“I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,” George Takei wrote on Twitter. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."

Takei played Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series alongside Nichols. But her impact was felt beyond her immediate co-stars, and many others in the “Star Trek” world also tweeted their condolences.

Celia Rose Gooding, who currently plays Uhura in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” wrote on Twitter that Nichols “made room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.”

“Star Trek: Voyager” alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, “Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.”

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and frequented “Star Trek” fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s “Heroes,” playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.

The original “Star Trek” premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted.

“I think many people took it into their hearts ... that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,” Nichols said in 1992 when a “Star Trek” exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian Institution.

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, 'You cannot do that,’” she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview.

“'You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,'” she said the civil rights leader told her.

“That foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,” Nichols said.

During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a U.S. television series. In the episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” their characters, who always maintained a platonic relationship, were forced into the kiss by aliens who were controlling their actions.

The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. “The characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man ... In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. We’re beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send.”

Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. But Nichols said in her book, “Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,” that she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force the original take to be used.

Despite concerns, the episode aired without blowback. In fact, it got the most “fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on ‘Star Trek’ for one episode,” Nichols said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television.

Born Grace Dell Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols hated being called “Gracie,” which everyone insisted on, she said in the 2010 interview. When she was a teen her mother told her she had wanted to name her Michelle, but thought she ought to have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom Nichols loved. Hence, “Nichelle.”

Nichols first worked professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at age 14, moving on to New York nightclubs and working for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands before coming to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959’s “Porgy and Bess,” the first of several small film and TV roles that led up to her “Star Trek” stardom.

Nichols was known as being unafraid to stand up to Shatner on the set when others complained that he was stealing scenes and camera time. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator.

In her 1994 book, “Beyond Uhura,” she said she met Roddenberry when she guest starred on his show “The Lieutenant,” and the two had an affair a couple of years before “Star Trek” began. The two remained lifelong close friends.

Another fan of Nichols and the show was future astronaut Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

In an AP interview before her flight, Jemison said she watched Nichols on “Star Trek” all the time, adding she loved the show. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichols.

Nichols was a regular at “Star Trek” conventions and events into her 80s, but her schedule became limited starting in 2018 when her son announced that she was suffering from advanced dementia.

Nichols was placed under a court conservatorship in the control of her son Johnson, who said her mental decline made her unable to manage her affairs or make public appearances.

Some, including Nichols’ managers and her friend, film producer and actor Angelique Fawcett, objected to the conservatorship and sought more access to Nichols and to records of Johnson’s financial and other moves on her behalf. Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship.

But the court consistently sided with Johnson, and over the objections of Fawcett allowed him to move Nichols to New Mexico, where she lived with him in her final years.

Associated Press Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles. Former AP Writer Polly Anderson contributed biographical material to this report.

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Nichelle nichols, lieutenant uhura on ‘star trek,’ dies at 89.

The actress earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. by playing a Black authority figure, rare on 1960s television.

By Mike Barnes

Mike Barnes

Senior Editor

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Nichelle Nichols, who made history and earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr . for her portrayal of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek , has died. She was 89. 

Nichols, who earlier sang and danced as a performer with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, died Saturday night of natural causes, her son, Kyle Johnson, posted on her official Facebook page.

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A family spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that she died in Silver City, New Mexico. She had been living with her son and was recently hospitalized.

Nichols played a person of authority on television at a time when most Black women were portraying servants.

She was cast as Uhura by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry after she guest-starred as the fiancee of a Black U.S. Marine who is a victim of racism in a 1964 episode of another NBC show he created, the Camp Pendleton-set The Lieutenant .

(Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban , two other Star Trek actors, appeared on that short-lived Roddenberry series as well.)

In the 2010 documentary Trek Nation , Nichols said she informed Roddenberry midway through Star Trek ’s first season of 1966-67 that she wanted to quit the show and return to the musical theater, which she called “her first love.”

However, a chance meeting with King at an NAACP fundraiser — who knew he was a Trekker? — led Nichols to stay put.

“He told me that Star Trek was one of the only shows that his wife Coretta and he would allow their little children to stay up and watch,” she recalled . “I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face and he said, ‘You can’t do that. Don’t you understand, for the first time, we’re seen as we should be seen? You don’t have a Black role. You have an equal role.’

“I went back to work on Monday morning and went to Gene’s office and told him what had happened over the weekend. And he said, ‘Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do.’”

Nichols played Nyota Uhura , who hailed from the United States of Africa in the future, on all three seasons of the series, which featured a multi-ethnic, multiracial crew manning the deck of the Starship Enterprise.

She reprised the role in all six of the Star Trek films from 1979 through 1991, on animated series and several video games, and on a 2002 episode of Futurama .

In the three recent Star Trek films directed by J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin, Uhura was portrayed by Zoe Saldaña . (Celia Rose Gooding plays her in the new Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .) 

On the original Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which first aired in November 1968, Uhura and Captain Kirk (William Shatner ) shared a rare, for the time, interracial kiss on television. (They couldn’t help themselves; according to the plot, aliens made them do it.)

When NBC execs learned about the kiss during production, they feared stations in the Southern states would not air the episode, so they ordered that another version of the scene be filmed. But Nichols and Shatner purposely screwed up every additional take.

“Finally, the guys in charge relented: ‘To hell with it. Let’s go with the kiss,” Nichols wrote in her 1994 book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories . “I guess they figured we were going to be canceled in a few months anyway. And so the kiss stayed.”

“I went everywhere,” she said. “I went to universities that had strong science and engineering programs. I was a guest at NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command], where no civilian had gone before.

“At the end of the recruitment, NASA had so many highly qualified people. They took six women, they took three African-American men. … It was a very fulfilling accomplishment for me.”

Among those who applied to NASA thanks to Nichols were Sally Ride, Judith Resnik , Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka . A documentary about her efforts, Woman in Motion , premiered in 2018.

Born Grace Nichols on Dec. 28, 1932, in the Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy. As a teenager, she toured as a dancer with Ellington and Lionel Hampton, then sang for the first time with Ellington’s band when a performer became ill at the last minute.

She danced with Sammy Davis Jr . in Porgy and Bess (1959), was a dice player in James Garner ’s Mister Buddwing (1966) and played the foul-mouthed head of a prostitution ring who puts a hit out on Isaac Hayes in Truck Turner  (1974). In 1968, she recorded an album, Down to Earth .

Nichols appeared as the grandmother of avenging angel Monica Dawson (Dana Davis), who has the power to mimic any physical motion she witnesses, on the NBC series Heroes .

Survivors include her son, who starred in the Gordon Parks film The Learning Tree (1969). The Los Angeles Times reported in August that he was at the center of a conservatorship battle over his mom, who had lived in Woodland Hills.

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Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek Iii: The Search For Spock

Nichelle Nichols was my hero and a groundbreaking figure for Black women

The death of the Star Trek actor leaves behind a hugely important legacy both on the small screen and in space

N ichelle Nichols was my hero. Her death on Saturday at 89 was the passing of an icon who changed the world, and then kept fighting to make the future in our imaginations and in reality, a better brighter place for Black girls. When I was a kid around eight or nine, I would watch reruns of Star Trek and imagine myself as a space traveler. I even loved the fact that our first names were so similar. To me, she was the epitome of cool and I eagerly watched every moment she was on screen.

But because I was a kid, I didn’t really grasp how groundbreaking her work on the show was, as by the time I saw it, she was one of many images of Black womanhood. For me she was the one that resonated because I was fascinated by space, but of course I saw everyone from Diahann Carroll to Jackée Harry on screen. My world was one where images of Black womanhood were everywhere. It wasn’t that I thought racism didn’t exist, but the world in which Black women were only depicted as maids was never my reality. The media landscape that would have taught me that there was nothing for girls like me but servitude was changed by Nichelle Nichols.

When Nichols broke those barriers for Black women as Lt Uhura on the original Star Trek , I didn’t exist yet, and though I can study Jim Crow and can understand in the abstract how hard it was for her, I will never know the world that couldn’t stand the sight of her. But because of her, I feel no need to dim my light. And that’s true for so many Black women in America and around the world.

In conversation with the writer NK Jemisin after the news broke, we talked about how sad it is, and about Nichols’s impact on Jemisin’s career. “Without Nichelle Nichols I might have never been a writer, certainly not the kind of writer I am now,” she said. And that’s the thing about trailblazers like Nichols: they create an environment in which the path they opened is widened by those that they affected. Jemisin is widely regarded as one of the best writers of our generation, and though Nichols may not have realized what she wrought in the moment, I hope she knows in some beautiful afterlife that she helped make that possible.

Nichelle Nichols in 2017

We talked about her impact on us specifically, but we join Whoopi Goldberg, Mae Jemison and millions of others in grieving and gratitude. Though Nichols always gave credit to the Rev Martin Luther King Jr for talking her out of leaving the show, I am quietly convinced that Nichols stood her ground because she wasn’t going to let herself be forced out. She famously had no problem standing up to William Shatner on set when they butted heads. And in later years she advocated heavily for more diversity in the space program, telling ABC audio in a 2016 interview:

“Nasa recruited me, hired me to recruit women and minorities for the space shuttle program. And until that time there were no people of color even considered,” she explains, adding with a laugh, “and after that, we were all over the place!

“I interviewed quite a few young women that were interested in that and simply didn’t think they had a chance. And one interview with me and they knew they did.”

For decades after Star Trek ended, Nichols was known for being encouraging, strong, and razor sharp. She was funny and sweet, and her work was always a presence in any conversation about science fiction or media representation. She was a cultural force that no one could ignore even when she wasn’t technically the focus in a conversation about the importance of inclusion and diversity. Her impact on others ran so deep that she was cited as an example by academics, activists and anyone who knew anything about the world as it had been and wanted to make the world the best it could be.

It’s one of the reasons fans struggled with the idea that she would not always be available to meet at conventions or that she might need more support and protection as she aged. When the conservatorship was announced , it was a blow to many, but given what her manager was allegedly able to do to her finances, I can’t help but wish we could have shown up for her the way she showed up for all of us. I can only hope that at the end she knew she was loved and revered.

Nichelle Nichols gave us the future – what we make of it is up to us. But we were lucky to have had her, to have been graced for as long as we were with her spirit and love. Perhaps the best way we can honor her is to strive as she did to make the world better, to remake our future into something utopian where the real Black Girl Magic is Black girls’ dreams coming true without having to battle so hard to be seen as human and worthy of respect and care. Nichelle Nichols was the hero that we needed, and hopefully we can all live up to the gifts she gave us.

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“‘I am the biggest Trekkie on the planet, and I am lieutenant Uhura’s most ardent fan,’” Nichols recalls King saying to her. “I didn’t even know how to say thank you,” says Nichols, who, days before, had given notice to “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry that she planned to leave the show. Nichols, who had cut her professional teeth singing and dancing, had her eyes fixed on a Broadway role. When King discovered Nichols’s plans, he was shaken and encouraged her to remain on the groundbreaking series.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Gives a Pep Talk

“Do you not understand what God has given you? … You have the first important non-traditional role, non-stereotypical role. … You cannot abdicate your position. You are changing the minds of people across the world, because for the first time, through you, we see ourselves and what can be.” Nichols remembers King saying to her.

The pep talk worked, and Nichols remained in her pivotal role until the series ended in 1969. While “Star Trek” may be Nichols most memorable role, she is a skilled songstress and dancer who toured with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands. Following the end of the original series, Nichols assisted NASA in recruiting females and minorities to its ranks, including the first American female astronaut, Sally Ride. “I think it’s been one of the most remarkable things in my career … that this one character that was a gift to me … became this iconic image and inspired and impacted so many people’s lives in positive ways,” she says.

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Nichelle Nichols, Uhura in ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 89

By Carmel Dagan

Carmel Dagan

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nichelle nichols dead obit

Nichelle Nichols , who portrayed communications officer Uhura on the original “ Star Trek ” series, died Saturday night in Silver City, N.M. She was 89 years old.

Nichols’ death was confirmed by Gilbert Bell, her talent manager and business partner of 15 years.

Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses in television history on “Star Trek.” That moment, with her co-star William Shatner, was a courageous move on the part of her, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and NBC considering the climate at the time, but the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which aired in 1968, was written to give all involved an out: Uhura and Captain Kirk did not choose to kiss but were instead made to do so involuntarily by aliens with the ability to control the movements of humans. Nevertheless, it was a landmark moment.

There had been a couple of interracial kisses on American television before. A year earlier on “Movin’ With Nancy,” Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra on the cheek in what appeared to be a spontaneous gesture but was in fact carefully planned. The Uhura-Kirk kiss was likely the first televised white/African American lip-to-lip kiss.

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, Nichelle Nichols, wearing her communications ear piece, 1982. (c)Paramount. Courtesy: Everett Collection.

But Uhura, whose name comes from a Swahili word meaning “freedom,” was essential beyond the interracial kiss: A capable officer who could man other stations on the bridge when the need arose, she was one of the first African American women to be featured in a non-menial role on television.

Nichols played Lt. Uhura on the original series, voiced her on “Star Trek: The Animated Series” and played Uhura in the first six “Star Trek” films. Uhura was promoted to lieutenant commander in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and to full commander in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

Nichols mulled leaving “Star Trek” after the first season to pursue a career on Broadway, but the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a fan of the series and understood the importance of her character in opening doors for other African Americans on television, personally persuaded her to stay on the show, she told astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in an interview for the Archive of American Television.

Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” has described Uhura as a role model, recalling that she was astounded and excited to see a black woman character on television who was not a maid.

Nichols and Shatner remembered the shooting of the famous kiss very differently. In “Star Trek Memories,” Shatner said NBC insisted that the actors’ lips never actually touch (though they appear to). But in Nichols’ 1994 autobiography “Beyond Uhura,” the actress insisted that the kiss was in fact real. Nervous about audience reaction, the network insisted that alternate takes be shot with and without a kiss, but Nichols and Shatner deliberately flubbed every one of the latter so NBC would be forced to air what appeared to be a kiss (whether their lips actually touched or not).

Both the “Star Trek” and “Movin’ With Nancy” moments drew some negative reactions, though Nichols recalled that the fan mail was overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

NASA later employed Nichols in an effort to encourage women and African Americans to become astronauts. NASA Astronaut Group 8, selected in 1978, included the first women and ethnic minorities to be recruited, including three who were Black. Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to fly aboard the Space Shuttle, cited “Star Trek” as an influence in her decision to join the space agency.

Nichols remained a supporter of the space program for decades.

In 1991, Nichols became the first African American woman to have her handprints immortalized at the TCL Chinese Theatre. The ceremony also included other members of the original “Star Trek” cast.

Born Grace Nichols in Robbins, Ill. on Dec. 28, 1932, Nichols began her show business career at age 16 singing with Duke Ellington in a ballet she created for one of his compositions. Later, she sang with his band.

She studied in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Her break came with an appearance in Oscar Brown’s high-profile but ill-fated 1961 musical “Kicks and Co.,” in which she played campus queen Hazel Sharpe, who’s tempted by the devil and Orgy Magazine to become “Orgy Maiden of the Month.” The play closed after its brief Chicago tryout, but Nichols attracted the attention of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who booked her at his Chicago Playboy Club.

Nichols also appeared in the role of Carmen for a Chicago stock company production of “Carmen Jones” and performed in a New York production of “Porgy and Bess,” making her feature debut in an uncredited role as a dancer in an adaptation of that work in 1959. (Later she would display her singing talents on occasion on “Star Trek.”)

While working in Chicago, Nichols was twice nominated for that city’s theatrical Sarah Siddons Award for best actress. The first came for “Kicks and Co.,” while the second was for her performance in Jean Genet’s “The Blacks.”

She had small roles in the films “Made in Paris,” “Mr. Buddwing” and the Sandra Dee vehicle “Doctor, You’ve Got to Be Kidding!” before she was cast on “Star Trek.”

During the early ’60s, before “Star Trek,” Nichols had an affair with Gene Roddenberry that lasted several years, according to her autobiography. The affair ended when Roddenberry realized he was in love with Majel Hudec, whom he married. When Roddenberry’s health was failing decades later, Nichols co-wrote a song for him, entitled “Gene,” that she sang at his funeral.

In January 1967, Nichols was featured on the cover of Ebony magazine, which published two feature articles on her within five years.

In the early ’70s, the actress made a few guest appearances on TV and appeared in the 1974 Blaxploitation film “Truck Turner” starring Isaac Hayes. She appeared in a supporting role in a 1983 TV adaptation of “Antony and Cleopatra” that also featured her “Star Trek” co-star Walter Koenig. She starred with Maxwell Caulfield and Talia Balsam in the 1986 horror sci-fi feature “The Supernaturals.”

Later, Nichols began to do voice work, lending her talent to the animated series “Gargoyles” and “Spider-Man.” She also voiced herself on “Futurama.”

The actress played the mother of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s lead character in 2002’s “Snow Dogs” and Miss Mable in the 2005 Ice Cube comedy “Are We There Yet?”

In 2007, Nichols recurred on the second season of the NBC drama “Heroes” as Nana Dawson, matriarch of a New Orleans family devastated by Hurricane Katrina who cares for her orphaned grandchildren and great-nephew, Micah Sanders (series regular Noah Gray-Cabey). The following year she appeared in the films “Tru Loved” and “The Torturer.”

Nichols suffered a stroke in 2015 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2018, touching off a conservatorship dispute between her manager Bell and her son as well as a friend.

Nichols was married and divorced twice. She is survived by her son, Kyle Johnson.

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Nichelle Nichols, Pioneering Star Trek Actress and NASA Recruiter, Dies at Age 89

black lady on star trek

By Jordan Hoffman

Nichelle Nichols Pioneering Star Trek Actress and NASA Recruiter Dies at Age 89

Nichelle Nichols, best known for her groundbreaking role as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek , passed away on Saturday, a family spokesperson said on Sunday . Her presence as one of the USS Enterprise ’s heroic bridge officers was groundbreaking in 1966. As an 11-year-old Whoopi Goldberg famously called out to her mother, “There’s a Black lady on TV and she ain’t no maid!” After completing the original show’s three seasons, Nichols continued her portrayal in a short-lived animated show in the early 1970s, and in a succession of six films from 1979 to 1991. She was 89 years old at the time of her death. 

Born in 1932 in a suburb of Chicago, Nichols began her career as a singer and dancer, touring with both Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton’s bands. She appeared at the legendary Blue Angel club in New York, as well as the Playboy Club, and was in a production of Carmen Jones in Chicago. She also had an uncredited role as a dancer in Otto Preminger’s 1959 film version of Porgy and Bess .

In 1964 she caught her big break, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time. She was cast in the episode “To Set It Right” on the short-lived series The Lieutenant . The show, which starred Gary Lockwood , was set at a West Coast Marine Corps base, and this particular episode featured some racially driven animosity between Dennis Hopper and Don Marshall. The series, which was produced in concert with the Pentagon, was unwilling to show anything that even remotely touched upon the issue of race, so the episode, in which Nichols co-starred, never aired. The show was cancelled after one season when its creator, Gene Roddenberry, pushed back.

Roddenberry, of course, went on to create Star Trek , where he was able to work in politically relevant scripts under the umbrella of science fiction. And he recruited many people from his time at The Lieutenant . 

For three seasons, Nichols’s Lt. Uhura (a variant of the Swahili word uhuru, meaning freedom) served as the communications officer aboard the bridge, facing down Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Doomsday Machines, and numerous other interplanetary troubles. When needed, she could slip into navigation, helm, and science stations when other officers were down. (In the animated series, she sat in the Captain’s chair for part of an episode.) 

In a season two episode, when time was of the essence, Lt. Uhura was seen swiftly soldering clutch communications equipment. As others on the ship look on anxiously, she reminded them that “If it isn't done just right, I could blow the entire communications system. It's very delicate work.” The always logical Mr. Spock responded encouragingly, “I can think no one better equipped to handle it, Miss Uhura. Please proceed.” 

But she was far from all business. She demonstrated her singing abilities on the show, often accompanying herself on the Vulcan lyre.

After the first season of the show, Nichols considered leaving the program and heading back to musical theater. Dr. Martin Luther King, hardly known for his commentary on television programming, personally persuaded her to stay. Meeting at an NAACP function, he told her his family loved the show, insisted that she had broken ground, and said that “for the first time,” with this role, “the world sees us as we should be seen, as equals, as intelligent people—as we should be.”

In the third season, Uhura and William Shatner ’s Captain James T. Kirk, shared what is often remembered as (but, technically, was not ) the first interracial kiss on television. (It was not a kiss borne of passion: the characters were being controlled telekinetically by nefarious aliens, as would happen from time to time.) After Star Trek ’s cancellation, Nichols worked for decades as an advocate for NASA, tasked specifically with attracting more women and minorities to the organization. 

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Star Trek is famous for its intense fan culture, and Nichols interacted with the community for years. This writer can personally vouch for the time and care she took with each encounter, as well her good humor and warm laugh. 

Among the many who paid respects to Nichols on social media late Sunday were Star Trek ’s Kate Mulgrew , Berenice King , Adam Nimoy , Celia Rose Gooding (who plays a younger version of the Uhura character on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ), Star Trek: Lower Decks actress Tawny Newsome , Star Trek brand protector John Van Citters , and old crewmate George Takei . 

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Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in Star Trek franchise, dies at 89

She helped break ground on tv by showing a black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star william shatner one of the first interracial kisses on american prime-time television.

black lady on star trek

Nichelle Nichols, an actress whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original Star Trek franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television, died July 30 in Silver City, N.M. She was 89.

Her son, Kyle Johnson, announced the death on Facebook . Her former agent Zachery McGinnis also confirmed the death but did not have further details. Ms. Nichols had a stroke in 2015.

Ms. Nichols, a statuesque dancer and nightclub chanteuse, had a few acting credits when she was cast in “Star Trek.” She said she viewed the TV series as a “nice steppingstone” to Broadway stardom, hardly anticipating that a low-tech science-fiction show would become a cultural touchstone and bring her enduring recognition.

“Star Trek” was barrier-breaking in many ways. While other network programs of the era offered domestic witches and talking horses, “Star Trek” delivered allegorical tales about violence, prejudice and war — the roiling social issues of the era — in the guise of a 23rd-century intergalactic adventure. The show featured Black and Asian cast members in supporting but nonetheless visible, non-stereotypical roles.

Ms. Nichols worked with series creator Gene Roddenberry, her onetime lover, to imbue Uhura with authority — a striking departure for a Black TV actress when “Star Trek” debuted on NBC in 1966. Actress Whoopi Goldberg often said that when she saw “Star Trek” as an adolescent, she screamed to her family, “Come quick, come quick. There’s a Black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!”

On the bridge of the starship Enterprise, in a red minidress that permitted her to flaunt her dancer’s legs, Ms. Nichols stood out among the otherwise all-male officers. Uhura was presented matter-of-factly as fourth in command, exemplifying a hopeful future when Blacks would enjoy full equality.

The show received middling reviews and ratings and was canceled after three seasons, but it became a TV mainstay in syndication. An animated “Star Trek” aired in the early 1970s, with Ms. Nichols voicing Uhura. Communities of fans known as “Trekkies” or “Trekkers” soon burst forth at large-scale conventions where they dressed in character.

Ms. Nichols reprised Uhura, promoted from lieutenant to commander, in six feature films between 1979 and 1991 that helped make “Star Trek” a juggernaut. She was joined by much of the original cast, which included Shatner as the heroic captain, James T. Kirk, and Leonard Nimoy as the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer Spock; DeForest Kelley as the acerbic Dr. McCoy; George Takei as the Enterprise’s helmsman, Sulu; James Doohan as the chief engineer, Scotty; and Walter Koenig as the navigator, Chekov.

Ms. Nichols said Roddenberry allowed her to name Uhura, which she said was a feminized version of a Swahili word for “freedom.” She envisioned her character as a renowned linguist who, from a blinking console on the bridge, presides over a hidden communications staff in the spaceship’s bowels.

But by the end of the first season, she said, her role had been reduced to little more than a “glorified telephone operator in space,” remembered for her oft-quoted line to the captain, “Hailing frequencies open, sir.”

In her 1994 memoir, “ Beyond Uhura ,” she said that, during filming, her lines and those of other supporting actors were routinely cut. She blamed Shatner, whom she called an “insensitive, hurtful egotist” who used his star billing to hog the spotlight. She also said studio personnel tried to undermine her contract negotiating power by hiding her ample fan mail.

Years later, Ms. Nichols claimed in interviews that she had threatened to quit during the first season but reconsidered after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at an NAACP fundraiser. She said he introduced himself as a fan and grew visibly horrified when she explained her desire to abandon her role, one of the few nonservile parts for Blacks on television.

“Because of Martin,” she told the “Entertainment Tonight” website, “I looked at work differently. There was something more than just a job.”

Her most prominent “Star Trek” moment came in a 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” about a group of “superior” beings who use mind control to make the visiting Enterprise crew submit to their will. They force Kirk and Uhura, platonic colleagues, to kiss passionately .

In later decades, Ms. Nichols and Shatner touted the smooch as a landmark event that was highly controversial within the network. It garnered almost no public attention at the time, perhaps because of the show’s tepid ratings but also because Hollywood films had already broken such taboos. A year before the “Star Trek” episode, NBC had aired Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. giving each other a peck on the lips during a TV special.

“Star Trek” went off the air in 1969, but Ms. Nichols’s continued association with Uhura at Trekkie conventions led to a NASA contract in 1977 to help recruit women and minorities to the nascent space shuttle astronaut corps.

NASA historians said its recruiting drive — the first since 1969 — had many prongs, and Ms. Nichols’s specific impact as a roving ambassador was modest. But the astronaut class of 1978 had six women, three Black men and one Asian American man among the 35 chosen.

Grace Dell Nichols, the daughter of a chemist and a homemaker, was born in Robbins, Ill., on Dec. 28, 1932, and grew up in nearby Chicago.

After studying classical ballet and Afro-Cuban dance, she made her professional debut at 14 at the College Inn, a high-society Chicago supper club. Her performance, in a tribute to the pioneering Black dancer Katherine Dunham, reputedly impressed bandleader Duke Ellington, who was in the audience. A few years later, newly re-christened Nichelle, she briefly appeared in his traveling show as a dancer and singer.

At 18, she married Foster Johnson, a tap dancer 15 years her senior. They had a son before divorcing. As a single mother, Ms. Nichols continued working the grind of the nightclub circuit.

In the late 1950s, she moved to Los Angeles and entered a cultural milieu that included Pearl Bailey, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis Jr., with whom she had what she described as a “short, stormy, exciting” affair. She landed an uncredited role in director Otto Preminger’s film version of “Porgy and Bess” (1959) and assisted her then-boyfriend, actor and director Frank Silvera, in his theatrical stagings.

In 1963, she won a guest role on “The Lieutenant,” an NBC military drama created by Roddenberry. She began an affair with Roddenberry, who was married, but broke things off when she discovered he was also seriously involved with actress Majel Barrett. “I could not be the other woman to the other woman,” she wrote in “Beyond Uhura.” (Roddenberry later married Barrett, who played a nurse on “Star Trek.”)

Ms. Nichols’s second marriage, to songwriter and arranger Duke Mondy, ended in divorce. Besides her son, Kyle Johnson, an actor who starred in writer-director Gordon Parks’s 1969 film “The Learning Tree,” a complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

After her role on “Star Trek,” Ms. Nichols played a hard-boiled madam opposite Isaac Hayes in the 1974 blaxploitation film “Truck Turner .” For many years, she performed a one-woman show honoring Black entertainers such as Lena Horne , Eartha Kitt and Leontyne Price. She also was credited as co-author of two science-fiction novels featuring a heroine named Saturna.

Ms. Nichols did not appear in director J.J. Abrams’s “Star Trek” film reboot that included actress Zoe Saldana as Uhura. But she gamely continued to promote the franchise and spoke with candor about her part in a role that eclipsed all her others.

“If you’ve got to be typecast,” Ms. Nichols told the UPI news service, “at least it’s someone with dignity.”

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Nichols also provided the voices for a number of other characters on the animated series. Her image also appeared in Star Trek Generations in a photograph in Kirk's cabin in the Nexus and again more prominently in Star Trek Beyond in a photograph that was among Spock 's possessions bequeathed to his alternate reality counterpart .

Nichols lobbied to appear as Guinan 's daughter in Star Trek: The Next Generation . [1] [2] Richard Arnold added to that by suggesting, at the Los Angeles Creation Convention in 1990, that Nichols might appear as Guinan's mother or daughter. [3] However, neither eventuality came to pass.

  • 1 Early career and other roles
  • 3 Personal background
  • 4.1 Appearances as Uhura
  • 4.2 Other media
  • 5 Books authored
  • 6 External links

Early career and other roles [ ]

Nichols was discovered by jazz legend Duke Ellington in her mid-teens, touring with both Ellington and Lionel Hampton as a lead singer and dancer. She broke into acting in the film Porgy and Bess (1959, with Sammy Davis, Jr., Loulie Jean Norman , and Brock Peters ) and had an acting career lasting over forty-five years.

Her first television role was on The Lieutenant (1964, which was written and produced by Gene Roddenberry and featured Gary Lockwood and Don Marshall ). She also made TV appearances as herself in It Takes Two (1969), Head of the Class (1988), and Weakest Link (2002); she also voiced animated versions of herself on The Simpsons (2004) and in two episodes of Futurama (2000, 2002).

She appeared as Ruana in two Tarzan films: Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion (1967, with fellow Star Trek actors Lloyd Haynes , William Marshall , and Jason Evers ); and Tarzan's Deadly Silence (1970, with Robert DoQui ). These were episodes from the Tarzan TV series edited together and released as films.

She also appeared in the TV movies Gettin' Up Mornin' (1964, with Davis Roberts and Don Marshall ) and William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1983, with Ted Sorel , Earl Boen , Barrie Ingham , Dan Mason , James Avery , and her original series co-star Walter Koenig ).

Aside from the first six Star Trek films, her other film credits include Made in Paris (1966, with Jack Perkins ), the blaxploitation classic Truck Turner (1974, with Dick Miller ), Mister Buddwing (1966, with Ken Lynch , Bart Conrad , and Charles Seel ), The Supernaturals (1986, with LeVar Burton and Jessie Lawrence Ferguson ), Disney 's Snow Dogs (2002), and Are We There Yet? (2005, with Jerry Hardin ). Nichols co-produced and played the title role in the 2011 film Lady Magdalene's .

Her other voice work includes the recurring role of Diane Maza on the Disney animated series Gargoyles , the African-American mother of Salli Elise Richardson 's character. Other Trek regulars who have appeared on the series include Avery Brooks , LeVar Burton , Michael Dorn , Jonathan Frakes , Marina Sirtis , and Brent Spiner . Among the Trek guest performers who appeared in the same episodes as Nichols were Michael Bell , LeVar Burton , Matt Frewer , Robert Ito , and Frank Welker .

She also appeared as ancient Egyptian goddess Thoth-Khepera in the episode "Avatar" of Batman: The Animated Series , with Brock Peters and David Warner .

In 2006, Nichols returned to the role of Uhura in the fan film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men .

In August 2007, it was announced that Nichols would have a recurring role in the NBC hit series Heroes . [4] She was the second star from TOS to appear on the series, after George Takei . Star Trek: Enterprise star Dominic Keating also had a recurring role on the series, and Star Trek star Zachary Quinto recurred in his famous role as the villainous Sylar. Other performers who appeared on the show during its second season included Joanna Cassidy and series regular Cristine Rose .

Nichelle Nichols and Mae Jemison

Nichols with Mae Jemison on the set of "Second Chances", in 1993

Nichols' role as Uhura on Star Trek was one of the first times that an African-American actress portrayed a non-stereotypical role on television. Previously, most African-American female characters on American television were depicted as maids or housekeepers, and Nichols' role helped break that barrier. Years later, Whoopi Goldberg told Nichols about excitedly watching Uhura, as a child, and telling her mother, " Come quick! Come quick! There's a black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid! " Nichols participated with series star William Shatner in another breakthrough, with American "episodic" television's first interracial kiss between fictional characters, as seen in TOS episode " Plato's Stepchildren ". Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. had openly kissed months earlier, in a musical-variety special broadcast by NBC on 11 December 1967, entitled Movin' With Nancy . However, preceding that was Uhura giving Christine Chapel a peck on the cheek in " What Are Little Girls Made Of? ", which had first aired on 20 October 1966 . [5]

Nichols became the first African-American actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the Star Trek cast. In 1992, she earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

After meeting Nichols at a Star Trek convention in 1975, scientist Dr. Jesco von Puttkamer suggested that the actress take part in NASA's recruitment drive. Nichols took up the role in 1977, making recruitment and training films, and supervising astronaut recruits and hopefuls. She noted that, within six months, the applicant count went from fewer than a hundread a year to 1,649. Most of the recruits that she attracted were women or from ethnic minorities. For her efforts, Nichols was named as NASA's 'Woman of the Year' in 1979. NASA astronauts Sally Ride , Guion Bluford , Judith Resnik, and Ronald McNair were all recruited as a direct result of Nichelle Nichols' employ as NASA's recruiter, specifically for minorities. [6] Nichols is a good friend of former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison . Dr. Jemison was a fan of the original Star Trek and was inspired by Nichols upon deciding to become the first African-American female astronaut. Jemison herself appeared in " Second Chances ".

Zoe Saldana and Nichelle Nichols

Nichols talking to Zoe Saldana on the set of 2009's Star Trek

Nichols sat down with Zoë Saldana during the filming of 2009 's Star Trek .

Several costumes and accessories worn by Nichols in Star Trek were sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay, including black Starfleet boots [7] and a grey undershirt. [8]

In 2016 , it was announced that Nichols would receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Saturn Awards for her role in Star Trek as well as her support for NASA. [9]

In 2023 , Star Trek: Strange New Worlds honored Nichols with a tribute at the end of Season 2 's premiere, " The Broken Circle ". [10]

Personal background [ ]

Nichelle Nichols had decided to leave the original Star Trek series after the first season . Fed up with racist harassment and limitation, culminating with her learning that studio executives were withholding her fan mail, she submitted her resignation. She withdrew it when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. convinced her that her role was a too important cultural breakthrough to leave.

Nichols is said to have wearied of the constantly used line: " Hailing frequencies open, sir. " After having to open hailing frequencies fourteen times, her exact words were " If I have to open hailing frequencies one more time, I'll smash this goddamn console! " ( The Trouble with Tribbles ) Gene Roddenberry wrote Uhura's line " Sometimes I think if I hear that word 'frequency' once more, I'll cry " into the script of " The Man Trap " as an in-joke referencing Nichols' hatred of the aforementioned sentence. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One )

Gene Roddenberry offered Nichols, his former lover, a very generous contract at the beginning of the first season: a flat rate of US$1,000 per episode, which was higher than the salaries of DeForest Kelley , James Doohan and George Takei . Also, her contract didn't set a limit for the number of episodes to appear in, which the aforementioned performers' contracts all did. However, Desilu 's legal department and the other producers soon got angry about this, especially since in the early episodes Uhura's role was basically uttering the "hailing frequencies" line a few times per episode, yet the studio paid her a thousand dollars for what was considered to be a "bit role". Soon, a new contract was negotiated, with Nichols' salary reduced to US$140 per day – which actually meant that, if she needed to appear in all six or seven days of production, she would actually receive more money than with the previous offer. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One ; Inside Star Trek: The Real Story )

Nichols made both her first (" The Corbomite Maneuver ") and last ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ) Star Trek appearances with DeForest Kelley . Both Nichols and Kelley filmed their first and last Star Trek scenes on 24 May 1966 and 2 July 1991 respectively.

Nichols authored two science fiction novels, entitled Saturn's Child and Saturn's Quest .

Her younger brother, Thomas Nichols, committed suicide on 26 March 1997, with the Heaven's Gate cult members in Rancho Santa Fe, California near San Diego.

Nichols' son is actor Kyle Johnson , who starred in the 1969 film The Learning Tree .

In 2018 , Nichelle Nichols was diagnosed with dementia.

Star Trek appearances [ ]

Nyota Uhura Star Trek: The Original Series Multiple appearances

  • Computer voice in TAS : " The Lorelei Signal ", " The Infinite Vulcan "
  • Davison in TAS : " The Lorelei Signal "

Appearances as Uhura [ ]

  • " The Corbomite Maneuver "
  • " Mudd's Women "
  • " The Enemy Within " (voice only)
  • " The Man Trap "
  • " The Naked Time "
  • " Charlie X "
  • " Balance of Terror "
  • " What Are Little Girls Made Of? "
  • " Dagger of the Mind "
  • " The Conscience of the King "
  • " The Galileo Seven "
  • " Court Martial "
  • " The Menagerie, Part I "
  • " The Menagerie, Part II " (voice only)
  • " Shore Leave "
  • " The Squire of Gothos "
  • " The Alternative Factor "
  • " Tomorrow is Yesterday "
  • " The Return of the Archons "
  • " A Taste of Armageddon "
  • " Space Seed "
  • " This Side of Paradise "
  • " Errand of Mercy "
  • " The City on the Edge of Forever "
  • " Operation -- Annihilate! "
  • " Catspaw "
  • " Metamorphosis "
  • " Friday's Child "
  • " Who Mourns for Adonais? "
  • " Amok Time "
  • " The Changeling "
  • " Mirror, Mirror "
  • " The Deadly Years "
  • " I, Mudd "
  • " The Trouble with Tribbles "
  • " Bread and Circuses "
  • " Journey to Babel "
  • " A Private Little War "
  • " The Gamesters of Triskelion "
  • " Obsession "
  • " The Immunity Syndrome "
  • " A Piece of the Action "
  • " By Any Other Name "
  • " Return to Tomorrow "
  • " Patterns of Force "
  • " The Ultimate Computer "
  • " The Omega Glory "
  • " Assignment: Earth "
  • " Spectre of the Gun "
  • " Elaan of Troyius "
  • " The Enterprise Incident "
  • " And the Children Shall Lead "
  • " Spock's Brain "
  • " Is There in Truth No Beauty? "
  • " The Empath "
  • " The Tholian Web "
  • " For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky "
  • " Day of the Dove "
  • " Plato's Stepchildren "
  • " Wink of an Eye "
  • " That Which Survives "
  • " Let That Be Your Last Battlefield "
  • " Whom Gods Destroy "
  • " The Mark of Gideon "
  • " The Lights of Zetar "
  • " The Cloud Minders "
  • " Requiem for Methuselah "
  • " The Savage Curtain "
  • " Beyond the Farthest Star "
  • " One of Our Planets Is Missing "
  • " The Lorelei Signal "
  • " More Tribbles, More Troubles "
  • " The Infinite Vulcan "
  • " The Magicks of Megas-Tu "
  • " Once Upon a Planet "
  • " The Terratin Incident "
  • " The Time Trap "
  • " The Slaver Weapon "
  • " The Pirates of Orion "
  • " The Practical Joker "
  • " Albatross "
  • " How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth "
  • " The Counter-Clock Incident "
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
  • Star Trek Generations (picture only)
  • Star Trek Beyond (picture only)
  • DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations " (archive footage)

Other media [ ]

Nichols provided voice work as Uhura for two Star Trek games:

  • Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
  • Star Trek: Judgment Rites

Books authored [ ]

  • Beyond Uhura

External links [ ]

  • Uhura.com – official site
  • Nichelle Nichols at StarTrek.com
  • Nichelle Nichols at the Internet Movie Database
  • Nichelle Nichols at Wikipedia
  • Nichelle Nichols at TriviaTribute.com
  • Interview at EmmyTVLegends.org
  • " The One with Nichelle Nichols " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
  • 3 Hoshi Sato

On 'Star Trek,' Nichelle Nichols boldly went where no Black woman had gone before

Image: Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek

Over the weekend, when we lost 89-year-old Nichelle Nichols, the actor who portrayed Lt. Nyota Uhura on “Star Trek,” we lost more than one of the brightest lights of television and science fiction, one of the most powerful symbols of African American achievement and hope and one of the greatest recruiters of women and minorities into American science and spaceflight. We also lost a strong Black woman who showed the world a future with Black men and women being treated as integral parts of humanity’s future and not just background players.

Uhura, a fictional African communications officer soaring through the galaxy, made real-life boys and girls, men and women feel like their horizons were unlimited, as well.

Nichols’ Uhura, a fictional African communications officer on the bridge of a futuristic starship soaring through the galaxy on the original three-year run of “Star Trek” and its subsequent first series of movies, made real-life boys and girls, men and women feel like their horizons were unlimited, as well. It was living, breathing Afrofuturism. And Nichols made it glorious.

No less an authority than Martin Luther King Jr. told her so, at an NAACP fundraiser. “ Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan. I am that Trekkie ,” he said, and when she responded that she had told “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodenberry that she would leave the show, King stunned her with his objection. “‘You cannot do that,’” Nichols later quoted King as saying. “He said: ‘Don't you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen.’”

There was a time when Black characters on television were servants or slaves, pimps or prostitutes or mere background characters to white stories. They were the “magical Negro,” there to help white main characters discover something about themselves; “the Black best friend,” who comforts and pushes the white main character in his or her journey; the “domestic or mammy,” who serves those white characters; or the thug; or the angry, or sassy, Black woman.

Uhura, a beautiful Black woman working alongside Capt. James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock and other members of the crew of the famous USS Enterprise, was none of these.

In the same interview in which she mentioned King’s excitement at meeting her, Nichols said Whoopi Golberg described to her how, at 9 years old, she had yelled to her family when she first saw “Star Trek”: “Come quick, come quick. There’s a Black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid! ”

In a 1968 episode of “Star Trek” called “Plato’s Stepchildren,” humanlike aliens dressed as ancient Greeks torture the crew of the Enterprise and force William Shatner’s hypersexual Capt. Kirk to lock lips with Uhura. It was the first kiss on American television between a Black woman and a white man . That kiss, in a world still riddled with racist and sexist attitudes, foretold the coming acceptance of interracial relationships in a U.S., but it probably wouldn’t have happened if not for a bit of subversiveness from Nichols and Shatner.

Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners had filmed the kiss between Shatner and Nichols with their lips mostly obscured by the back of Nichols’ head, but they wanted to play it even safer and film a second scene in which the kiss happens off-screen.

But in her book “Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,” Nichols said she and Shatner deliberately flubbed their lines, leaving the show with no choice but to use the original take.

The episode aired without blowback. In fact, in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television, Nichols said it got the most “fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on ‘Star Trek’ for one episode.”

Unlike Goldberg, whose childhood excitement over Uhura preceded a career in entertainment, Mae Jemison’s excitement over Uhura preceded a career in science . When Jemison climbed aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992, she became the first African American woman in space. She later told C-SPAN: “ Lieutenant Uhura was maybe one of the first women you saw every day, every week on television who worked in a technical field . … And she was African, which was a very different feel for television back then. So, I very much liked Uhura and she was a very important person to me.”

Mae Jemison’s excitement over Uhura preceded her career in science. She became the first African American woman in space.

Nichols spent her time after “Star Trek’s” original television run recruiting women and minorities for NASA , and according to the documentary “Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA," released last year, in just a few months, she brought in over 8,000 applicants, 1,600 of whom were women and 1,000 of whom were people of color, a significantly more diverse pool of applicants than NASA had seen before.

As groundbreaking as her television work was, Nichols rose above being Uhura to help change the world. She wasn’t just the beautiful, trailblazing communications officer aboard a fictional spacecraft. She was the trailblazing advocate who helped the world see African Americans as an integral part of the future and of modern spaceflight.

Thank you, Lieutenant. Hailing frequencies closed.

Jesse J. Holland, an award-winning author, professor and journalist, teaches journalism at the School of Media & Public Affairs at George Washington University and was a longtime congressional, Supreme Court and White House reporter with The Associated Press. He is the author of two African American history books about Washington, D.C., and has written for major entertainment franchises, including Lucasfilm’s "Star Wars," DC Comics’ "Superman" and Marvel’s "Black Panther."

Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89

(AP) – Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, has died at the age of 89.

Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” Johnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time.

“I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,” George Takei wrote on Twitter. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.”

Takei played Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series alongside Nichols. But her impact was felt beyond her immediate co-stars, and many others in the “Star Trek” world also tweeted their condolences.

Celia Rose Gooding, who currently plays Uhura in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” wrote on Twitter that Nichols “made room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.”

“Star Trek: Voyager” alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, “Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.”

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and frequented “Star Trek” fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s “Heroes,” playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.

The original “Star Trek” premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted.

“I think many people took it into their hearts ... that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,” Nichols said in 1992 when a “Star Trek” exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian Institution.

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’” she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview.

“‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’” she said the civil rights leader told her.

“That foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,” Nichols said.

During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a U.S. television series. In the episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” their characters, who always maintained a platonic relationship, were forced into the kiss by aliens who were controlling their actions.

The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. “The characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man ... In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. We’re beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send.”

Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. But Nichols said in her book, “Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,” that she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force the original take to be used.

Despite concerns, the episode aired without blowback. In fact, it got the most “fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on ‘Star Trek’ for one episode,” Nichols said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television.

Shatner tweeted Sunday: “I am so sorry to hear about the passing of Nichelle. She was a beautiful woman & played an admirable character that did so much for redefining social issues both here in the US & throughout the world.”

Born Grace Dell Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols hated being called “Gracie,” which everyone insisted on, she said in the 2010 interview. When she was a teen her mother told her she had wanted to name her Michelle, but thought she ought to have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom Nichols loved. Hence, “Nichelle.”

Nichols first worked professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at age 14, moving on to New York nightclubs and working for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands before coming to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959′s “Porgy and Bess,” the first of several small film and TV roles that led up to her “Star Trek” stardom.

Nichols was known as being unafraid to stand up to Shatner on the set when others complained that he was stealing scenes and camera time. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator.

In her 1994 book, “Beyond Uhura,” she said she met Roddenberry when she guest starred on his show “The Lieutenant,” and the two had an affair a couple of years before “Star Trek” began. The two remained lifelong close friends.

Another fan of Nichols and the show was future astronaut Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

In an AP interview before her flight, Jemison said she watched Nichols on “Star Trek” all the time, adding she loved the show. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichols.

Nichols was a regular at “Star Trek” conventions and events into her 80s, but her schedule became limited starting in 2018 when her son announced that she was suffering from advanced dementia.

Nichols was placed under a court conservatorship in the control of her son Johnson, who said her mental decline made her unable to manage her affairs or make public appearances.

Some, including Nichols’ managers and her friend, film producer and actor Angelique Fawcett, objected to the conservatorship and sought more access to Nichols and to records of Johnson’s financial and other moves on her behalf. Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship.

But the court consistently sided with Johnson, and over the objections of Fawcett allowed him to move Nichols to New Mexico, where she lived with him in her final years.

Associated Press Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles. Former AP Writer Polly Anderson contributed biographical material to this report.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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The Story Behind 'Star Trek' Actress Nichelle Nichols' Iconic Interracial Kiss

The smooch was not a romantic one. but, in 1968, to show a black woman kissing a white man was a daring move., the conversation, published aug. 2, 2022.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation .

This article is republished here with permission from The Conversation . This content is shared here because the topic may interest Snopes readers; it does not, however, represent the work of Snopes fact-checkers or editors.

On a 1968 episode of “Star Trek,” Nichelle Nichols , playing Lt. Uhura, locked lips with William Shatner’s Capt. Kirk in what’s widely thought to be first kiss between a Black woman and white man on American television.

The episode’s plot is bizarre: Aliens who worship the Greek philosopher Plato use telekinetic powers to force the Enterprise crew to sing, dance and kiss. At one point, the aliens compel Lt. Uhura and Capt. Kirk to embrace. Each character tries to resist, but eventually Kirk tilts Uhura back and the two kiss as the aliens lasciviously look on.

The smooch is not a romantic one. But in 1968 to show a Black woman kissing a white man was a daring move. The episode aired just one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loving v. Virginia decision struck down state laws against interracial marriage. At the time, Gallup polls showed that fewer than 20% of Americans approved of such relationships .

As a historian of civil rights and media , I’ve been fascinated by the woman at the center of this landmark television moment. Casting Nichols, who died on July 30, 2022, created possibilities for more creative and socially relevant “Star Trek” storylines .

But just as significant is Nichols’ off-screen activism. She leveraged her role on “ Star Trek ” to become a recruiter for NASA, where she pushed for change in the space program. Her career arc shows how diverse casting on the screen can have a profound impact in the real world, too.

‘A Triumph of Modern-Day TV’

In 1966, “Star Trek” creator Gene Rodenberry decided to cast Nichols to play Lt. Uhura, a translator and communications officer from the United States of Africa. In doing so, he made Nichols the first Black woman to have a continuing co-starring role on television.

The Black press was quick to heap praise on Nichols’ pioneering role.

The Norfolk Journal and Guide hoped that it would “broaden her race’s foothold on the tube.”

The magazine Ebony featured Nichols on its January 1967 cover and described Uhura as “the first Negro astronaut, a triumph of modern-day TV over modern-day NASA.”

Yet the famous kiss between Uhura and Kirk almost never happened.

After the first season of “Star Trek” concluded in 1967, Nichols considered quitting after being offered a role on Broadway. She had started her career as a singer in New York and always dreamed of returning to the Big Apple.

But at an NAACP fundraiser in Los Angeles, she ran into Martin Luther King Jr.

Nichols would later recount their interaction.

“You must not leave,” King told her . “You have opened a door that must not be allowed to close … you changed the face of television forever. … For the first time, the world sees us as we should be seen, as equals, as intelligent people.”

King went on to say that he and his family were fans of the show; she was a “hero” to his children.

With King’s encouragement, Nichols stayed on “Star Trek” for the original series’ full three-year run.

Nichols’ controversial kiss took place at the end of the third season. Nichols recalled that NBC executives closely monitored the filming because they were nervous about how Southern television stations and viewers would react.

After the episode aired, the network did receive an outpouring of letters from viewers – and the majority were positive .

In 1982, Nichols would tell the Baltimore Afro-American that she was amused by the amount of attention the kiss generated, especially because her own heritage was “a blend of races that includes Egyptian, Ethiopian, Moor, Spanish, Welsh, Cherokee Indian and a ‘blond blue-eyed ancestor or two.’”

Space Crusader

But Nichols’ legacy would be defined by far more than a kiss.

After NBC canceled Star Trek in 1969, Nichols took minor acting roles on two television series, “ Insight ” and “ The D.A. ” She would also play a madam in the 1974 blaxploitation film “ Truck Turner .”

She also started to dabble in activism and education. In 1975, Nichols established Women in Motion Inc. and won several government contracts to produce educational programs related to space and science. By 1977, she had been appointed to the board of directors of the National Space Institute , a civil space advocacy organization.

That year she gave a speech at the institute’s annual meeting. In it, she critiqued the lack of women and minorities in the astronaut corps, challenging NASA to “come down from your ivory tower of intellectual pursuit, because the next Einstein might have a Black face – and she’s female.”

Several of NASA’s top administrators were in the audience. They invited her to lead an astronaut recruitment program for the new space shuttle program. Soon, she packed her bags and began traveling the country, visiting high schools and colleges, speaking with professional organizations and legislators, and appearing on national television programs such as “Good Morning America.”

“The aim was to find qualified people among women and minorities, then to convince them that the opportunity was real and that it also was a duty, because this was historic,” Nichols told the Baltimore Afro-American in 1979. “I really had this sense of purpose about it myself.”

In her 1994 autobiography, “ Beyond Uhura ,” Nichols recalled that in the seven months before the recruitment program began, “NASA had received only 1,600 applications, including fewer than 100 from women and 35 from minority candidates.” But by the end of June 1977, “just four months after we assumed our task, 8,400 applications were in, including 1,649 from women (a fifteen-fold increase) and an astounding 1,000 from minorities.”

Nichols’ campaign recruited several trailblazing astronauts, including Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, Guion Bluford, the first African American in space, and Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space.

black lady on star trek

Relentless Advocacy for Inclusion

Her advocacy for inclusion and diversity wasn’t limited to the space program.

As one of the first Black women in a major television role, Nichols understood the importance of opening doors for minorities and women in entertainment.

Nichols continued to push for African Americans to have more power in film and television.

“Until we Blacks and minorities become not only the producers, writers and directors, but the buyers and distributors, we’re not going to change anything,” she told Ebony in 1985 . “Until we become industry, until we control media or at least have enough say, we will always be the chauffeurs and tap dancers.”

Matthew Delmont , Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History, Dartmouth College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

By The Conversation

Black History Facts | Untold Black History | BlackHistory.com

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‘Star Trek’ Makes History With First Ever Black Female Director

Hanelle Culpepper, first Black female director

Star Trek has always had a diverse cast from George Takei who is Japanese and Nichelle Nichols who is African-American. And, now, the popular TV series has Hanelle Culpepper, its first Black female director in the franchise's history of more than 50 years.

Later, she worked as an assistant to a couple of established directors and then for the Sundance Institute. She was also in the prestigious American Film Institute and was selected by NBC’s diversity program. Culpepper’s big break came when she was offered to direct an episode of Parenthood starring Robert Townsend and then 90210 , both of which aired in 2012. She later directed various episodes of other TV shows including Criminal Minds , The Flash , Gotham , and more, and even was nominated for an Image Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series in 2015.

The path she has traveled has led her to make history as the director of several episodes of Star Trek: Picard , which features Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard.

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New 'Star Trek' Series Makes History With First Ever Black Female Lead

New 'Star Trek' Series Makes History With First Ever Black Female Lead

Sonequa Martin-Green has been cast in the lead role for the forthcoming  Star Trek: Discovery  series, which marks the first time in the history of the  Star Trek  canon that a black woman has held such a position.

Instead of being a captain (as is usually the case in the  Star Trek  franchise)  The Walking Dead  actress will serve as a lieutenant commander on the series, according to a report from Entertainment Weekly. However, not much else is known about Martin-Green's character, including her name.

" Star Trek started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast. We're continuing that tradition," Bryan Fuller , the show's former showrunner and executive producer, said at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour. "We wanted to paint a picture of Starlet that's indicative of encountering people who are much more different than we are."

According to Fuller the decision to cast a nonwhite woman in the lead role was inspired by Mae Jamison (the first black female astronaut), as well as Nichelle Nichols , the only recurring black and female cast member from the initial  Star Trek  series.

Fuller also added that the change in the lead role's description adds to the evolution of the upcoming series, providing a different perspective not seen in the franchise's predecessors.

"We've seen six series from the captain's point of view," Fuller said. "To see a character from a [new] perspective on the starship — one who has different dynamic relationships with a captain, with subordinates, it gave us richer context."

Martin-Green's role on the series adds her to a list of other Black Star Trek actors from the past such as  LeVar Burton and the late Don Marshall ( who passed away back in October of this year).

Aside form having its first lead role done by a black woman,  Star Trek: Discovery  will also have the TV franchise's first openly gay character, a lieutenant played by Anthony Rapp . CBS will be premiering the series in May on its All Access streaming service.

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Nichelle Nichols: Star Trek star who broke sci-fi’s racial barrier

As communications chief uhura, nichelle nichols became a key part of a show that became a cultural touchstone, article bookmarked.

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Nichols helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority

Nichelle Nichols , an actor whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original Star Trek franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of authority and who shared with co-star William Shatner one of the first interracial kisses on American prime-time television, has died aged 89.

Nichols, a statuesque dancer and nightclub chanteuse, had a few acting credits when she was cast in Star Trek . She said she viewed the TV series as a “nice steppingstone” to Broadway stardom, hardly anticipating that a low-tech science-fiction show would become a cultural touchstone and bring her enduring recognition.

Star Trek was barrier-breaking in many ways. While other network programmes of the era offered domestic witches and talking horses, Star Trek delivered allegorical tales about violence, prejudice and war – the roiling social issues of the era – in the guise of a 23rd-century intergalactic adventure. The show featured Black and Asian cast members in supporting but nonetheless visible, non-stereotypical roles.

Nichols worked with series creator Gene Roddenberry, her onetime lover, to imbue Uhura with authority – a striking departure for a Black TV actress when Star Trek debuted on NBC in 1966. Actor Whoopi Goldberg often said that when she saw Star Trek as an adolescent, she screamed to her family, “Come quick, come quick. There's a Black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!”

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On the bridge of the starship Enterprise , in a red minidress that permitted her to flaunt her dancer’s legs, Nichols stood out among the otherwise all-male officers. Uhura was presented matter-of-factly, exemplifying a hopeful future when Blacks would enjoy full equality.

The show received middling reviews and ratings and was cancelled after three seasons, but it became a TV mainstay in syndication. An animated Star Trek aired in the early 1970s, with Nichols voicing Uhura. Communities of fans known as “Trekkies” or “Trekkers” soon burst forth at large-scale conventions where they dressed in character.

Nichols reprised Uhura, promoted from lieutenant to commander, in six feature films between 1979 and 1991 that helped make Star Trek a juggernaut. She was joined by much of the original cast, which included Shatner as the heroic captain, James T Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer Spock, DeForest Kelley as the acerbic Dr McCoy, George Takei as the Enterprise ’s helmsman Sulu, James Doohan as the chief engineer Scotty, and Walter Koenig as the navigator Chekov.

Nichols said Roddenberry allowed her to name Uhura, which she said was a feminised version of a Swahili word for “freedom”. She envisioned her character as a renowned linguist who, from a blinking console on the bridge, presides over a hidden communications staff in the spaceship’s bowels.

Clockwise from top left: Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy

But by the end of the first season, she said, her role had been reduced to little more than a “glorified telephone operator in space”, remembered for her oft-quoted line to the captain, “Hailing frequencies open, sir.”

In her 1994 memoir, Beyond Uhura , she said that, during filming, her lines and those of other supporting actors were routinely cut. She blamed Shatner, whom she called an “insensitive hurtful egotist” who used his star billing to hog the spotlight. She also said studio personnel tried to undermine her contract negotiating power by hiding her ample fan mail.

Years later, Nichols claimed in interviews that she had threatened to quit during the first season but reconsidered after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr at an NAACP fundraiser. She said he introduced himself as a fan and grew visibly horrified when she explained her desire to abandon her role, one of the few non-servile parts for Blacks on television.

“Because of Martin,” she told Entertainment Tonight , “I looked at work differently. There was something more than just a job.”

Her most prominent Star Trek moment came in a 1968 episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” about a group of “superior” beings who use mind control to make the visiting Enterprise crew submit to their will. They force Kirk and Uhura, platonic colleagues, to kiss.

Nimoy, Walter Koenig, Nichols and George Takei at the Walk of Fame in Hollywood in 2012

In later decades, Nichols and Shatner touted the smooch as a landmark event that was highly controversial within the network. It garnered almost no public attention at the time, perhaps because of the show’s tepid ratings but also because Hollywood films had already broken such taboos. A year before the Star Trek episode, NBC had aired Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr giving each other a peck on the lips during a TV special.

Star Trek went off the air in 1969, but Nichols’s continued association with Uhura at Trekkie conventions led to a Nasa contract in 1977 to help recruit women and minorities to the nascent Space Shuttle astronaut corps.

Nasa historians said its recruiting drive – the first since 1969 – had many prongs, and Nichols’s specific impact as a roving ambassador was modest. But the astronaut class of 1978 had six women, three Black men and one Asian-American man among the 35 chosen.

Nichols leads the Dragon Con Parade in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2015

Grace Dell Nichols, the daughter of a chemist and a homemaker, was born in Illinois on 28 December 1932, and grew up in Chicago.

After studying classical ballet and Afro-Cuban dance, she made her professional debut at 14 at the College Inn, a high society Chicago supper club. Her performance, in a tribute to the pioneering Black dancer Katherine Dunham, reputedly impressed bandleader Duke Ellington, who was in the audience. A few years later, newly re-christened Nichelle, she briefly appeared in his travelling show as a dancer and singer.

At 18, she married Foster Johnson, a tap dancer 15 years her senior. They had a son before divorcing. As a single mother, Nichols continued working the grind of the nightclub circuit.

In the late 1950s, she moved to Los Angeles and entered a cultural milieu that included Pearl Bailey, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis Jr, with whom she had what she described as a “short, stormy, exciting” affair. She landed an uncredited role in director Otto Preminger’s film version of Porgy and Bess (1959) and assisted her then-boyfriend, actor and director Frank Silvera, in his theatrical stagings.

  • Julee Cruise: The whispery voice of David Lynch films

In 1963, she won a guest role on The Lieutenant , an NBC military drama created by Roddenberry. She began an affair with Roddenberry, who was married, but broke things off when she discovered he was also seriously involved with actress Majel Barrett. “I could not be the other woman to the other woman,” she wrote in Beyond Uhura . (Roddenberry later married Barrett, who played a nurse on Star Trek .)

Nichols’s second marriage, to songwriter and arranger Duke Mondy, ended in divorce. Besides her son, Kyle Johnson, an actor who starred in writer-director Gordon Parks’s 1969 film The Learning Tree , a complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

After her role on Star Trek , Nichols played a hard-boiled madame opposite Isaac Hayes in the 1974 blacksploitation film Truck Turner . For many years, she performed a one-woman show honouring Black entertainers such as Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Leontyne Price. She also was credited as co-author of two science-fiction novels featuring a heroine named Saturna.

Nichols did not appear in director JJ Abrams’s Star Trek film reboot that included actress Zoe Saldana as Uhura. But she gamely continued to promote the franchise and spoke with candour about her part in a role that eclipsed all her others.

“If you’ve got to be typecast,” Nichols told the UPI news service, “at least it’s someone with dignity.”

Nichelle Nichols, actor, born 28 December 1932, died 30 July 2022

© The Washington Post

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black lady on star trek

Written by William Satterwhite

July 22, 2016, featured | news.

From the very beginning, creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision for the world of Star Trek was an optimistic view of an Earth where humans had reached the pinnacle of understanding, a societal maturity where differences are not simply tolerated but embraced. A major part of this, from the very beginning, has been a diversity not only in major players but also supplementary characters. What follows here is a rundown of 10 non-starring black characters from the broad scope of the Star Trek universe who, each in their own way, represent the Star Trek vision.

Note- Only characters who are human or humanoid aliens virtually indistinguishable from humans were considered for this list.

Richard Daystrom

black lady on star trek

Imagine for a second a television show establishing that one of, if not the, most brilliant scientist in the world was a black man responsible for not just one, but two, of the greatest technological creations known to man. In 2016 with someone like Neil deGrasse Tyson well known as a foremost scientific mind this might not seem like a big deal but this isn’t 2016- this is March 1968; no one has ever seen Planet of the Apes , Lyndon Johnson is running for President, Robert Kennedy isn’t and both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Bobby Hutton are still alive (in less than a one full month all of these statements would be flipped).

Dr. Richard Daystrom, played by the legendary William Marshall, is introduced in season two of the original Star Trek series as creator of the computer system that helps run ships like the Enterprise and whose new system is capable of running a ship by itself, sans crew. While the latter creation doesn’t quite work out in the end, showing a black man as one of, if not the, greatest scientific mind in the world in the turbulent 60s was an obvious way to show Roddenberry’s dream for the future realized.

black lady on star trek

One of the few alien characters on this list, Guinan, portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg on Star Trek: The Next Generation , was an El-Aurian, a race of “listeners” scattered by The Borg. Serving as a bartender on the Enterprise, Guinan developed friendly relationships with many members of its senior staff, particularly Captain Picard. She also had great sense of style when it came to fabulous hats.

Captain Clark Terrell

black lady on star trek

In command of the starship Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , Captain Terrell has the unfortunate luck of running into the vengeful Khan Noonien Singh. Simply described by his First Officer Chekov as a strong man, Terrell, played by the great Paul Winfield takes his own life instead of acting as as a pawn to take another’s.

Lily Sloane

black lady on star trek

Considered a legend in space exploration within the Star Trek mythos, Doctor Lily Sloane is another example of the Star Trek universe taking great care to show black scientific leaders playing a crucial role in the humanity’s reach for the stars. Played by Alfre Woodard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation film First Contact, Sloane is an aeronautical engineer who works on the development of the first warp drive on Earth.

Commodore Stone

black lady on star trek

Even before the original Star Trek series gave us a pioneering black scientist in it’s second season with with richard Daystrom, the first season episode “Court Martial” gave us another pioneering black Star Fleet official. In early 1967, the same year the United States Navy would see its first black Captain (Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., also to be the Navy’s first black admiral a few years later), classic actor Percy Rodriquez portrayed Commodore Stone, a top ranking Star Fleet officer who oversees the court martial of Captain Kirk.

Emory Erickson

black lady on star trek

Played by actor Bill Cobbs, Emory Erickson is another one of the Star Trek universe’s examples of great black scientists. Developer of the molecular transporter, Erickson appeared on Star Trek: Enterprise where he was shown to be something of a surrogate father to Captain Jonathan Archer, both having lost the corresponding figure in their lives.

Kasidy Yates-Sisko

black lady on star trek

As the name implies, Kasidy Yates-Sisko becomes the wife of Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Introduced by Sisko’s son Jake and portrayed by actress Penny Johnson, the multi-faceted relationship between Yates and Sisko is another example of Star Trek guiding the way in a world of sci-fi where fully developed relationships between a black and a black woman are few and far between.

Calvin Hudson

black lady on star trek

An old friend and Starfleet Academy classmate of Benjamin Sisko, Calvin Hudson was an experienced officer and leader who could inspire trust in his cohorts. Unfortunately that trust was misguided as Hudson, portrayed by Bernie Casey on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , was a double agent working with the rebellious Maquis.

Captain Silva La Forge

black lady on star trek

While perhaps slightly more prevalent than black romantic relationships in the world of sci-fi, fully developed black familial relationships in sci-fi are unfortunately also a rare sight. With Geordi La Forge a key featured member of the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew, we are allowed to see the exploration of his family relationships and the stresses of being in a military/service type family as both his mother and father are members of Starfleet.

The mother Silva stands out as Captain of her own ship, though it is in this capacity that she becomes lost in action. Notably, this role was the fourth time that the late actress Madge Sinclair played the on-screen mother of LeVar Burton.

black lady on star trek

Another standout from the initial Star Trek run, Don Marshall’s Lt. Boma represented another example of Star Trek being bold in its portrayal of black characters in the 60s by being just that- bold- as he engages in an episode long back and forth with Spock as the latter suffers through a trial of leadership while rescuing Boma and his shipwrecked crew.

Shown to be a highly competent and forceful officer, Boma was actually intended to be a recurring character but scheduling conflicts served to rob this character of an even greater role in the annals of Star Trek lore.

William Satterwhite is the creator of the superhero webcomic Stealth and a freelance designer, internet consultant and illustrator living in Douglasville, Ga. His professional website can be found at www.williamsatterwhite.info .

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Published Mar 14, 2024

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Radical Depiction of Black Love

Sisko and Kasidy's relationship gave Black viewers something they didn't get to see very often on '90s dramas.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Kasidy Yates, Benjamin Sisko, and Jennifer Sisko

StarTrek.com

Life as a Black person can be difficult.

As a descendent of slaves, I am constantly reminded of the ways that history manifests itself in my daily life. Police, poverty, and pain are always nearby. It is an evil that haunts the daily lives of Black people today. We can see the way that slavery, though hundreds of years in the past, still impact the existential reality of people whose skin has been kissed by the sun.

For years, television shows and movies that centered the Black experience, often did it by centering narratives around these historical ills. "Very special episodes" of network shows like Golden Girls and Family Matters discussed race in this myopic way. These episodes would feature narratives that highlighted the way that racial injustice still shapes the lives of Black people, but showed little else.

After a while, it gets to be tiresome. One can only take so much pathology — that’s why I found Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to be so refreshing. The show was honest about the existence of racial inequality (as evidenced by episodes like " Far Beyond The Stars "); yet, what made this iteration of Star Trek so notable was the way that it was intentional to highlight and showcase Black love.

Ben Sisko gazes lovingly at Kasidy Yates while raising a glass in 'The Way of the Warrior'

"The Way of the Warrior"

Up to this point, few mainstream TV shows and movies had been so intentional. Often, portrayals of Black characters in love were relegated to a male and female character who were together because they were the only people from that demographic on the screen, so it was a given that they would be in a relationship together. Rarely was time taken to examine why they were together and, more importantly, how they made their love work in the face of systemic and interpersonal conditions that tried to pull them apart. Deep Space Nine did just that.

When we first meet Benjamin Sisko, he is coming to terms with being a single father who has just lost Jennifer, the love of his life, in Battle of Wolf 359 . This is not something that is resolved quickly.

I have seen other shows too eager to move the narrative forward. Too many times I have seen showrunners ensnare their protagonist in other romantic entanglements far before it made sense to do so. If the person who was lost was the love of their lives, it makes sense for there to be an extended time of grief — especially when kids are involved.

What made DS9 so unique was how seriously its writers treated the love that Sisko had for his wife. In " Emissary ," Sisko is barely able to contain his distaste for Captain Picard, the man he holds responsible for his wife’s death. The rest of the first season finds Sisko focusing on his job so intently because the pain of the loss of his wife lies just beneath the surface.

In the second season, Sisko had a very brief, and very doomed romantic interest in Fenna, the psychoprojective telepathic projection of the unconscious mind of Nidell. However, it was not until Season 3 that Jake introduced his father to the woman he would eventually marry — Kasidy Yates. This stood out to me. It made sense; DS9 allowed for Sisko to grieve, to mourn the loss of his wife, and to, slowly, find love again.

Ben Sisko pulls Kasidy Yates in for a final tender embrace in 'What We Leave Behind'

"What We Leave Behind"

Watching Sisko fall in love with Kasidy remains one of my favorite parts of the show. His playful and caring demeanor with her is part of what makes Season 4 so rewarding to watch — and why we are devastated for him when she is sent to prison in " For the Cause ." When she’s released, Sisko wastes no time picking up where they left off — even more evidence that his feelings for her are real. We see the highs and lows of romantic love in the relationship shared by Sisko and Kasidy, and it is further evidence of how smart the show is when it comes to Black love.

After seeing him so saddened by the loss of his wife early in the series, watching Sisko find love again was a joy to behold. He eventually came to love Kasidy deeply and passionately, again reminding us that he, a Black man, embodied the fullness of his humanity. In a world where Black life is treated with such frivolity, this is notable.

I’ve been Black my whole life — all 38 years. And there is more to living in this skin than a constant struggle with white supremacy. There are so many moments of joy. Raising a son; falling in love; enjoying great music (so much of it that we helped create and refine); savoring a well-cooked (and seasoned) meal; and, yes, remembering those we have lost along the way. These, too, are parts of Black life — and DS9 fully understood that.

I will forever be grateful to the writers, actors, and producers of this show for not only showing what Black people are forced to deal with, but also being intentional in showing that we are capable of love.

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This article was originally published on July 30, 2020.

Lawrence Ware (he/him) is a professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University and co-director of the Center for Africana Studies. Tweet him at @law_writes.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on TikTok , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , and Twitter .

Star Trek: The Original Series - "The Way to Eden"

84 years after Hattie McDaniel, the Oscars still put Black women in a box

A collage of Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Hattie McDaniel, Lupita Nyong'o, Whoopi Goldberg, an Oscar statue and Octavia Spencer

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As the countdown to the 96th Academy Awards winds to an end, little suspense hovers over who will win the Oscar for supporting actress. And that all-but-certain outcome is both good news and bad.

First, the good news: Barring a huge upset, Da’Vine Joy Randolph — nominated for her poignant performance in “The Holdovers” as Mary Lamb, the head cook at an elite New England boarding school — is headed for the winners circle, continuing a streak that so far has included a Golden Globe , a Screen Actors Guild award and an Indie Spirit award.

Now the bad news: A Randolph win would continue the motion picture academy‘s decades-long tradition of honoring Black women who play characters subservient to white people or in roles that operate in support of white characters — while honoring them for little else.

To be clear, the issue here is not with the perceptive and nimble Randolph, for whom a win would be the well-deserved culmination of a string of impressive screen performances in such wide-ranging productions as “Dolemite Is My Name,” “High Fidelity” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

Illustration with titles of best monvie nominees and Oscars statuette silhouette

Oscars 2024: Final predictions for all 23 categories

The question now, heading into the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday, is how many Oscars will “Oppenheimer” win from its 13 nominations?

March 6, 2024

But in the through line from Hattie McDaniel, the first Black winner in this category, to Randolph, likely the newest, it is difficult not to read a troubling tendency among Oscar voters: When it comes to determining what work deserves recognition, the academy still puts Black women in a box.

To date, only 10 Black actresses have won an Oscar, and Halle Berry remains the only one to have triumphed in the lead category, for her role in 2001’s “Monster’s Ball.” (The numbers for Black women are even more dire in the nonacting categories.)

And it was through McDaniel, who made history in 1940 as the first Black performer to win an Oscar for her portrayal as Mammy, the house slave in “Gone With the Wind,” that the academy established its pattern: awarding Black female performers almost exclusively in supporting roles, many of them in literal or figurative service to the white characters around them.

That list includes Whoopi Goldberg as con artist psychic Oda Mae Brown in 1990’s “Ghost,” in which Brown exists exclusively to communicate with the ghost of a murdered banker (Patrick Swayze) determined to punish his killer and protect the love of his life (Demi Moore); Octavia Spencer as maid Minny Jackson in 2011’s “The Help,” a housekeeper who also tends to the emotional needs of a privileged plantation wife (Jessica Chastain) in civil rights-era Mississippi; and Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey in 2013’s “12 Years a Slave,” an enslaved woman who endures rape, a vicious whipping and other abuses at the hands of a sadistic couple (Michael Fassbender and Sarah Paulson) in antebellum Louisiana.

The roll call of Black actresses in subservient roles who were nominated in the category but didn’t win is even more extensive.

Ethel Waters in 1949 became the second Black performer to score an Oscar nomination as an illiterate Southern laundress in “Pinky.” Juanita Moore played a maid catering to actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) in 1959’s “Imitation of Life.” Alfre Woodard played a maid to columnist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Mary Steenbergen) in 1983’s “Cross Creek.”

There have been exceptions, of course, such as Jennifer Hudson, who won for playing cast-off singer Effie White in 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” or Viola Davis, who won for her turn as the matriarch of a Black family in midcentury Pittsburgh in the 2016 adaptation of August Wilson’s “Fences.”

And, thankfully, the tempo with which Black women are nominated for and win Oscars, whatever the role, is increasing. (Nominated alongside Randolph this year in the supporting actress category is Danielle Brooks for “The Color Purple.”)

But the limitations placed on Black actresses over the course of Academy Awards history come into particularly sharp relief when compared to the range of roles portrayed by Black men who’ve won acting Oscars. Of the five who’ve walked away with a statuette for lead, and especially the six who’ve done so for supporting, a far greater proportion have won for playing characters in positions of authority (Louis Gossett Jr., “An Officer and a Gentleman”), celebrity (Cuba Gooding Jr., “Jerry Maguire”) or political influence in their own right (Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah”).

You might even say that the expressive, moving Randolph has received such rightful acclaim for her performance because her strength in the role overcomes the more deferential aspects of Mary’s character.

For the record:

11:14 a.m. March 11, 2024 An earlier version of this story misidentified two of “The Holdovers’” Oscar nominations. David Hemingson, not Alexander Payne, was nominated for original screenplay, and Payne was not nominated for director.

Her work in “The Holdovers” has been a key element in the film’s popular and critical success. In addition to Randolph, the film is nominated for best picture, lead actor (Paul Giamatti), original screenplay (David Hemingson) and film editing.

Set in 1970, the film centers on Paul Hunham (Giamatti), an ill-tempered classics instructor drafted to remain on campus and supervise the handful of students who can’t go home during the wintry Christmas break. When the rich father of one of the students maneuvers to whisk most of the boys off on vacation, Hunham winds up stuck with Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a moody only child who has been abandoned at school by his parents. Teacher and student’s open contempt for each other eventually evolves into an affectionate bond.

Also remaining on campus to manage the school’s cafeteria is Mary, who is so heartbroken over the Vietnam War death of her son Curtis, a former standout at the predominantly white prep school, that she declines an invite from family members living nearby to join them during her holiday. Mary reveals that she took the job in the first place so that her son could receive a first-class education, but she couldn’t afford to send him to college, resulting in him being drafted. The campus was “the last place my baby and I were together,” she tells Hunham, explaining her decision to isolate there: “I feel it’s too soon. Like Curtis would feel I’m abandoning him.”

Randolph vividly depicts Mary’s heartbreak. She wants little to do with others. She smokes heavily and often has a liquor bottle within reach. Even attending a Christmas Eve party is more painful than joyous.

But despite Payne’s claim, explaining his decision to cast Randolph to The Times , that “if she’s stealing every movie she’s in, then it’s time she should be a lead,” Mary might be better described as a third wheel in the story, serving primarily as a bridge between Hunham and Tully as she cooks their meals and grudgingly allows them to join her in the evenings as she watches “The Newlywed Game.”

A woman in a pink outfit and cowboy hat has arrived.

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This is as much a function of the context around Mary, or lack thereof, as the character herself. Where Hunham’s bitter feud with the school’s administration and Tully’s troubled home life are explored in some detail, we’re left to fill in the blanks ourselves when it comes to the racial dynamic for a Black mother and her late son at a lily white institution, or for the atmosphere in Boston on the eve of its most ferocious battles over school desegregation.

Instead, Mary becomes heartbreak personified, her grief broken only by her disdain for her job: She refers to the students as “royal little a—” and declares her frustration at having to prepare meals for “300 little s—.”

The only other Black figure at the school, a custodian named Danny, is introduced as a potential love interest for Mary, only to be dispatched halfway through the film. Later, when Hunham and Tully plot a getaway to Boston, Mary asks if they can drop her off in nearby Roxbury — she has decided, without explanation, to visit her family after all, particularly her little sister, who is pregnant. But Payne passes up another opportunity to flesh out Mary’s character. Instead, the film switches to scenes showing Hunham and Tully visiting a museum, ice skating and watching a movie.

Some may see such criticisms of “The Holdovers” as nit-picking, or an attempt to rain on Randolph’s parade. But if the film academy is to achieve its vision, advanced since the uproar of #OscarsSoWhite nearly a decade ago, of making the industry’s top honor more inclusive, it can’t simply be about increasing the number of nominees and winners of color. It also needs to recognize a broader, more empowered array of work from Black women — films like “The Woman King” and “Till,” two of the awards’ most controversial recent snubs. Otherwise, the Oscars’ future may continue to look too much like the Oscars’ past.

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A lifelong Los Angeles resident, Greg Braxton has written for the Los Angeles Times for more than three decades. He currently is a staff writer covering television for the Calendar section, and has also written extensively about trends and cultural issues in the entertainment field.

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 Review: A Fun, Enjoyably Surprising Start to Its Last Hurrah

Christian blauvelt.

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The passage of time isn’t particularly fair to most streaming series, but for the “ Star Trek ” streaming series on Paramount+ it’s brutal. “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 5 arrives just two years since the Season 4 finale gave us Stacey Abrams as the President of Earth , but it feels much longer in “Trek” terms: Since then, there’ve been two seasons of other live-action series, the highly acclaimed final season of “Star Trek: Picard” and the even more acclaimed Season 2 of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”

It can be hard even to remember what happened the last time we saw the USS Discovery in the 32nd Century as a result.

Time will tell.

A valedictory vibe is definitely in the air in the first four episodes of Season 5 made available to critics, but it mostly trades “we had a good run” moments for propulsive action. A chase is on for that “Next Gen”-inspired MacGuffin, with two former couriers — and acquaintances of David Ajala’s Book — having become ruthless plunderers in the quest for it: Mal (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) are their names, and they are the kind of scoundrel characters “Trek” could generally use more of.

To that end, there are a lot of hushed-tone dialogue scenes between Doug Jones’ Saru and his new lady love, T’Rina (Tara Rosling), about whether or not, or even how, they should reveal their relationship publicly. She’s all but proposed marriage, but there’s a catch: She’s the president of Ni’Var (what used to be called Vulcan, but changed its name after its reunification with the Romulans), and some Vulcan Purists might not be happy about her romance with an alien outsider.

There’s also sturm und drang in the relationship between Adira (Blu del Barrio) and Grey (Ian Alexander) who are reassessing where things stand between them as well.

If all of this suggests that “figuring it out” is the great theme of Season 5, that’s probably accurate. Burnham is also figuring out what it means to be a great captain, which includes a choice that rankles much of the crew: Working more closely with another captain facing demotion, Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), whose approach is very different from what Burnham or her crew are used to — but another, very different perspective can always be a good thing, even if it doesn’t always feel great in the moment.

As always, the background characters on “Discovery” get entirely short shrift. There’s a moment where Rayner is trying to get to know Detmer, Rhys, Owosekun, and the other peripheral bridge crew a bit better: It’s hard for this storyline to land, since we as the viewers have been given so little time with them. However insulated from camaraderie with the Discovery bridge crew Rayner may be, he probably still knows them better than we do. It’s the great underwritten aspect of this show, and, one suspects, will be the thing to prevent “Discovery” from being among the most cherished “Trek” series when fans look back on it in the years and decades to come.

But here’s the deal: The landscape for “Trek” looks vastly different now than it did in 2017 when “Discovery” launched on what was then CBS All Access. Then, it was the only game in town, and the only “Trek” series to air new episodes in 12 years when even UPN decided “Star Trek: Enterprise” didn’t have enough viewers in 2005. (Now, with a few notable exceptions, many network TV shows would kill for the kind of audience “Enterprise” brought in each week back then.)

Since 2017, we’ve had an entire ecosystem of “Trek” TV spring up. “Discovery” doesn’t have to be the sole hope for its future, nor does it have to bear the burden of reinventing the wheel of what “Trek” could be — the way it so obviously came across like it was attempting that in that strange first season when they even decided to change the way whole beloved alien species look.

This show did its job. “Trek” is in a far better, more stable place now — with only the instability of Paramount itself possibly being a factor to affect its future . And “Discovery” can take a well-earned victory lap before its well-earned decommissioning.

This series began with a character literally named the Torchbearer. Now “Discovery” can pass its own torch with pride.

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‘Masters of the Air’ Finale First Look Teases Hope on the Horizon for POW Soldiers (VIDEO)

Masters of the air.

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Times are grim for the men of Apple TV+ ‘s Masters of the Air , the latest chapter in the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks Band of Brothers franchise.

As we reach “Part Nine,” the finale episode dropping Friday, March 15, we have your exclusive first look at the glimmer of hope on the horizon for prisoners of war Major John “Bucky” Egan ( Callum Turner ), Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson ( Branden Cook ), Lieutenant Robert H. Daniels ( Ncuti Gatwa ), Lieutenant Richard D. Macon (Josiah Cross), and more as the Americans approach the Nazi camp.

Callum Turner and Branden Cook in 'Masters of the Air'

(Credit: Apple TV+)

In the sneak peek clip, above, the hope comes in the form of a bomber who flies down over the snowy encampment. “Macon, that’s a B-51,” Jefferson says, recognizing the sound of the engine before the plane comes into view.

Could this be the answer to their escape? Only time will tell. As the clip plays out, the plane flies overhead and shoots at the gun towers, taking aim at the main offense.

'Masters of the Air': Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner & More on Continuing 'Band of Brothers' Legacy (VIDEO)

'Masters of the Air': Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner & More on Continuing 'Band of Brothers' Legacy (VIDEO)

While it doesn’t have a major impact at first, the plane flies off and some may believe the attack is over, but it isn’t long before the B-51 is circling back. As the prisoners whoop and holler with excitement, the Nazis continue to shoot in the air, but their ground attack is futile against the targeted strike of the bomber as it shoots directly into the central buildings of the camp.

Although the minute-long tease doesn’t reveal too much, it promises excitement on the horizon for the finale episode of this World War II drama centered around the 100th Bomb Group. Don’t miss it for yourself, tune into the clip, above, and catch Masters of the Air ‘s finale episode when it drops on Apple TV+.

Masters of the Air , Finale Episode, Friday, March 15, Apple TV+

Masters of the Air - Apple TV+

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Branden Cook

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COMMENTS

  1. Nichelle Nichols

    Nichelle Nichols (/ n ɪ ˈ ʃ ɛ l / nish-EL; born Grace Dell Nichols; December 28, 1932 - July 30, 2022) was an American actress, singer and dancer whose portrayal of Uhura in Star Trek and its film sequels was groundbreaking for African American actresses on American television. From 1977 to 2015, she volunteered her time to promote NASA's programs and recruit diverse astronauts ...

  2. Nichelle Nichols

    Nichelle Nichols. Actress: Star Trek. Nichelle Nichols was one of 10 children born to parents Lishia and Samuel Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. She was a singer and dancer before turning to acting and finding fame in her groundbreaking role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in the Star Trek (1966) series. As long as she could remember, she wanted to do nothing but sing, dance, act and write ...

  3. Black Women In Star Trek

    Black Women In Star Trek by A-Lost-Soul | created - 11 Jun ... Lady Ada's Secret Society Claire QUTE was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. ... Canadian, American born in Alberta, Canada. She is an actress, known for Star Trek: Picard (2022), Carol's Second Act (2019) and Logan Lucky (2017). She graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of ...

  4. Nichelle Nichols, groundbreaking "Star Trek" star, dies at age 89

    Bill Russell, Nichelle Nichols remembered 01:45. Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Uhura on "Star Trek" in a groundbreaking role for Black actresses before going on to help recruit people of color ...

  5. Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on 'Star Trek,' has died at 89

    Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, has died at the age of 89. Her son ...

  6. Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on 'Star Trek,' dead at 89 : NPR

    Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols, best known as Star Trek 's communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, died Saturday night in Silver City, New Mexico. She was 89 years old. "I regret to inform ...

  7. How Nichelle Nichols broke racial stereotypes on 'Star Trek'

    July 31, 2022. Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, has died at the ...

  8. Nichelle Nichols Dead: 'Star Trek' Lieutenant Uhura Was 89

    Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura on 'Star Trek,' Dies at 89. The actress earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. by playing a Black authority figure, rare on 1960s television.

  9. Nichelle Nichols was my hero and a groundbreaking figure for Black

    The death of the Star Trek actor leaves behind a hugely important legacy both on the small screen and in space. N ichelle Nichols was my hero. Her death on Saturday at 89 was the passing of an ...

  10. Nichelle Nichols made Black sci-fi fans believe they could reach for

    Obituary: Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in Star Trek franchise, dies at 89. She also paved the path for Black actors: the futuristic eye visor-wearing LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Michael ...

  11. Nichelle Nichols

    Actress Nichelle Nichols, who was the first African-American woman to play a lead role on television — Communication Officer Lieutenant Uhura on the popular sci-fi television show "Star Trek ...

  12. Nichelle Nichols, Uhura in 'Star Trek,' Dies at 89

    Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Uhura on the original " Star Trek " series, died Saturday night in Silver City, N.M. She was 89 years old. Nichols' death was confirmed ...

  13. Nichelle Nichols, Pioneering Star Trek Actress and NASA Recruiter, Dies

    Nichelle Nichols, best known for her groundbreaking role as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, passed away on Saturday, a family spokesperson said on Sunday. Her presence as one of the USS Enterprise 's ...

  14. Nichelle Nichols, Uhura in Star Trek franchise, dies at 89

    Nichelle Nichols, an actress whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original Star Trek franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of ...

  15. Nichelle Nichols

    Nichelle Nichols (28 December 1932 - 30 July 2022; age 89) was an American actress from Robbins, Illinois. She was most famous for portraying Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and the first six Star Trek films. She reappeared in archive footage from TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles" and TOS: "Mirror, Mirror" that was used in the Star Trek: Deep ...

  16. On 'Star Trek,' Nichelle Nichols boldly went where no Black woman had

    There's a Black lady on TV, and she ain't no maid! ... In a 1968 episode of "Star Trek" called "Plato's Stepchildren," humanlike aliens dressed as ancient Greeks torture the crew of ...

  17. Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on 'Star Trek,' has died at 89

    Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, has died at the age of 89.

  18. The Story Behind 'Star Trek' Actress Nichelle Nichols' Iconic

    The Story Behind 'Star Trek' Actress Nichelle Nichols' Iconic Interracial Kiss The smooch was not a romantic one. But, in 1968, to show a Black woman kissing a white man was a daring move.

  19. The Heroes of Starfleet's Black History

    [RELATED: Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] What does any of this have to do with Star Trek you may be asking at this point. Well, Star Trek has its own part in Black history. Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, LeVar Burton's Geordi La Forge, Avery Brooks' Captain Sisko, or perhaps Sonequa Martin-Green's Captain Burnham weekly saving the galaxy are obvious standouts, as ...

  20. 'Star Trek' Makes History With First Ever Black Female Director

    Star Trek has always had a diverse cast from George Takei who is Japanese and Nichelle Nichols who is African-American. And, now, the popular TV series has Hanelle Culpepper, its first Black female director in the franchise's history of more than 50 years. Culpepper is a veteran television director who directed her first play while she was a ...

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  22. Nichelle Nichols: Star Trek star who broke sci-fi's racial barrier

    Nichelle Nichols, an actor whose role as the communications chief Uhura in the original Star Trek franchise in the 1960s helped break ground on TV by showing a Black woman in a position of ...

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    Kasidy Yates-Sisko. As the name implies, Kasidy Yates-Sisko becomes the wife of Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.Introduced by Sisko's son Jake and portrayed by actress Penny Johnson, the multi-faceted relationship between Yates and Sisko is another example of Star Trek guiding the way in a world of sci-fi where fully developed relationships between a black and a black ...

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    He eventually came to love Kasidy deeply and passionately, again reminding us that he, a Black man, embodied the fullness of his humanity. In a world where Black life is treated with such frivolity, this is notable. I've been Black my whole life — all 38 years. And there is more to living in this skin than a constant struggle with white ...

  25. It's 2024, and the Oscars still put Black women in a box

    To date, only 10 Black actresses have won an Oscar, and Halle Berry remains the only one to have triumphed in the lead category, for her role in 2001's "Monster's Ball." (The numbers for ...

  26. Star Trek Discovery Season 5 Review: A Fun Beginning of the End

    Luckily, Season 5, the final run of 10 episodes to close out this series that served as the flagship of the whole "Star Trek" streaming era since it launched in 2017, hits the ground running ...

  27. 'Masters of the Air' Finale First Look Teases Hope on the Horizon for

    In the sneak peek clip, above, the hope comes in the form of a bomber who flies down over the snowy encampment. "Macon, that's a B-51," Jefferson says, recognizing the sound of the engine ...