George Takei

George Takei, born Hosato Takei on April 20, 1937, in Los Angeles, California, is an American actor, author, and activist. His father, Takekuma Norman Takei, who was born in Yamanashi Prefecture and worked in real estate, named him George after King George VI of the United Kingdom, whose coronation occurred shortly after Takei's birth. His mother, Fumiko Emily Nakamura, was born in Sacramento, California. Takei grew up bilingual, speaking both English and Japanese, and remains fluent in both languages.

In 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, the Takei family was first relocated to converted horse stables at Santa Anita Park before being transferred to the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Rohwer, Arkansas, a camp situated in swamplands and enclosed by barbed wire. The family was later moved again to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California. During the war, Takei had an aunt and infant cousin living in Hiroshima, both of whom were killed in the atomic bombing of the city. After the war ended, the family left the internment camp with no bank accounts, home, or business, and spent five years living on Skid Row in Los Angeles. Takei attended Mount Vernon Junior High School and served as Boys Senior Board President at Los Angeles High School, where he was also a member of Boy Scout Troop 379 of the Koyasan Buddhist Temple.

Takei initially enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, studying architecture, before transferring to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in theater in 1960 and a Master of Arts in theater in 1964. He also studied at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-upon-Avon in England, at Sophia University in Tokyo, and trained as an actor at the Desilu Workshop in Hollywood.

His professional career began in the late 1950s with voiceover work on English-language dubbed versions of the Japanese monster films Rodan and Godzilla Raids Again. He appeared in the television anthology series Playhouse 90, a 1959 episode of Perry Mason, and multiple episodes of Hawaiian Eye during the 1960–61 season. He originated the role of George in the musical Fly Blackbird! in Los Angeles, though when the production moved to Off-Broadway the West Coast cast was required to re-audition and the role initially went to another actor before Takei returned to close out the show's final months. His film work during this period included appearances alongside Frank Sinatra in Never So Few, Richard Burton in Ice Palace, Jeffrey Hunter in Hell to Eternity, Alec Guinness in A Majority of One, James Caan in Red Line 7000, and Cary Grant in Walk, Don't Run. In 1964, he starred in "The Encounter," an episode of The Twilight Zone in which he played a landscaper of Japanese descent. CBS deemed the episode's subject matter too disturbing for syndication, and it was not seen again after its original broadcast until a 1992 video release.

In 1965, producer Gene Roddenberry cast Takei as astrosciences physicist Hikaru Sulu in the second pilot for the original Star Trek television series. When NBC picked up the series, Takei continued in the role, with Sulu repositioned as the ship's helmsman. His work on the 1968 film The Green Berets, in which he played Captain Nim, a South Vietnamese Army officer, drew him away from Star Trek filming during the second season, limiting his appearances. He reprised the role of Sulu in Star Trek: The Animated Series from 1973 to 1974, in the first six Star Trek films, and in a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager marking the franchise's 30th anniversary, by which point his character had been promoted to captain of his own starship. He also contributed voice work to the 1997 video game Star Trek: Captain's Chair and appeared in the fan-produced internet series Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II in 2007.

Beyond Star Trek, Takei co-wrote the science fiction novel Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe with Robert Asprin in 1979, and published his autobiography, To the Stars, in 1994. In January 2007, he joined the cast of the television series Heroes, playing Kaito Nakamura, a Japanese businessman and father to one of the show's central characters.

Takei came out as gay in 2005 and subsequently became a prominent advocate for LGBT rights. He has also been a vocal supporter of immigrant rights and has received awards and recognition for his work on human rights and Japan–United States relations, including his involvement with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. His advocacy around the Japanese American internment experience found direct expression in his work on Allegiance, a Broadway musical about that history. Takei appeared in Allegiance on Broadway in 2015, marking his Broadway debut. The production drew on the internment experience he had lived through as a child, and he had been involved in its development as early as 2012.