George Takei, born on April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, is a celebrated actor, civil rights activist, and New York Times bestselling author. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Lieutenant Sulu in Star Trek, and he has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGTBQ+ rights, and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal—at the age of five, Takei and his family were forcibly relocated to United States incarceration camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, along with over 120,000 other Japanese Americans. His family was sent to the Rohwer and Tule Lake camps in Arkansas and California, respectively. Though Takei’s childhood in the internment camps was marked by a loss of freedom and civil liberties, it also inspired a lifelong commitment to civil rights and social justice.

After the war, Takei went on to study architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, before pursuing a career in acting. His breakthrough came in the 1960s when he was cast as Lieutenant Sulu in the sci-fi television series Star Trek, and he helped pave the way for greater Asian American representation in Hollywood as one of the first Asian Americans with a prominent role on mainstream television. In addition to his acting career, Takei became a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, coming out publicly in 2005. This was a groundbreaking moment for both the LGBTQ+ community and the Asian American community in the entertainment industry.

Takei is also an accomplished author, with his critically acclaimed graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, which recounts his childhood experiences living behind barbed wires in the internment camps. Through his writing, he has helped shed light on the Japanese American incarceration during World War II. George Takei’s legacy stretches well beyond the page and the screen—he is a role model to all for championing civil rights and dismantling systemic social barriers.