Brent Spiner

Brent Jay Spiner was born on February 2, 1949, in Houston, Texas, to Sylvia (née Schwartz) and Jack Spiner, who owned a furniture store. His father died of kidney failure at age 29, when Spiner was ten months old. His mother subsequently remarried, and Spiner was adopted by her second husband, Sol Mintz, whose surname he used from 1955 to 1975. He attended Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas, where he competed on the speech team and won a national championship in dramatic interpretation. He later enrolled at the University of Houston, performing in local theater, though he left without completing a degree. In 1968, he worked at Six Flags Astroworld, first as a gunfighter and then in Dr. Featherflowers' Medicine Show alongside his friend Trey Wilson, with whom he alternated in the title role. That same year he performed the role in the television special The Pied Piper of Astroworld.

Spiner relocated to New York City in the early 1970s and established himself as a stage actor. His Broadway career spanned from 1978 to 2003 and included productions such as The Three Musketeers, Sunday in the Park with George, the musical 1776, and Life (x) 3. In 1997, he returned to Broadway as John Adams in the Roundabout Theater Company revival of 1776, a production nominated for a Tony Award, for which a cast recording was released. His work in musical theater earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Musical in 1998. During his early New York years, he also appeared under the name Brent Mintz as an imposter on a 1972 episode of To Tell the Truth.

Before relocating to Los Angeles in 1984, Spiner accumulated additional screen credits, including a non-speaking role in Woody Allen's film Stardust Memories, credited as Fan in Lobby. He appeared as a media technician in a second-season episode of the Showtime series The Paper Chase and played a condemned soul in a 1986 episode of the CBS revival of The Twilight Zone. He made two appearances in season three of Mama's Family as two different characters, played a recurring character named Bob Wheeler on Night Court, and appeared in the television film Manhunt for Claude Dallas as Jim Stevens. His first and only starring film role came in Rent Control in 1984.

In 1987, Spiner was cast as Lieutenant Commander Data, an android Starfleet officer, on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a role that would define much of his career. He appeared in all but one of the series' 178 episodes across seven seasons. He also played Data's evil android brother Lore in several episodes of the series. Spiner reprised the role of Data in four feature films: Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), in which he additionally portrayed B-4, another android brother. In 1997, he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact. He had previously received a Saturn Award nomination in the same category for his role as Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day, a character he reprised in Independence Day: Resurgence.

In 2004, Spiner returned to the Star Trek franchise in a three-episode arc of Star Trek: Enterprise, playing Dr. Arik Soong, an ancestor of Data's creator. He also recorded dialogue as Data for the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. Eighteen years after his last appearance as Data, Spiner reprised the role in Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023, also portraying Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, Dr. Adam Soong, and, in the third season, simultaneously playing Noonien Soong, B-4, Lore, and a version of Data capable of feeling emotions. Beyond the screen, Spiner voiced Data in multiple Star Trek video games, including Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Final Unity and Star Trek: Bridge Commander.

Spiner has maintained a parallel career in music. In 1991, he recorded Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back, an album of 1940s pop standards whose title referenced both the yellow contact lenses he wore as Data and Frank Sinatra's record Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back. In March 2008, he performed alongside Maude Maggart in a radio show and musical called Dreamland, which was subsequently released as a CD album.

His film work outside of Star Trek includes The Aviator, I Am Sam, Out to Sea, Phenomenon, The Master of Disguise, Dude, Where's My Car?, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, and Superhero Movie, in which he played Dr. Strom in 2008. His television appearances span a wide range of series, including The Blacklist, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Mad About You, Dream On, Gargoyles, and The Outer Limits. He appeared as himself in The Big Bang Theory and Joey, and voiced himself in a 2009 episode of Family Guy. Beginning in 2011, he voiced the Joker in the animated series Young Justice, a role he continued through 2022. That same year he began starring in the comic webseries Fresh Hell, playing a version of himself.