Nichelle Nichols

Starting her career as a singer for Duke Ellington, Nichelle Nichols worked as a vocalist and dancer for live jazz orchestras, before switching to acting. A guest appearance on The Lieutenant led to an offer from Gene Roddenberry to join the cast of on the classic science-fiction television series Star Trek as communications officer Lieutenant Nyota Uhura from 1966 to '69 (The name "Uhura" was adapted from "uhuru," the Swahili word for "freedom.") .

Nichols's groundbreaking television performance as an African-American woman in a confident, authoritative role drew immediate notice from Star Trek's audience. Nichols, still envisioning herself as a theater performer, considered leaving the series after the first season. However, a conversation with the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., during which King encouraged her to remain in the role, changed her mind.

Nichols appeared throughout the run of Star Trek, from 1966 to 1969. As Uhura, she enacted television's first interracial kiss, with William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk in the 1968 episode "Plato's Stepchildren."

Nichols also appeared in six Star Trek motion pictures released between 1979 and 1991.

In addition to acting, she has recorded albums, written a memoir and science-fiction novels, and worked to recruit women and minorities to NASA.

*Nichelle Nichols is appearing thanks to Galactic Productions.