American actor and director who played William T. Riker and became one of the franchise's most prolific directors, including the films First Contact and Insurrection.
Jonathan Frakes, an American actor and director born in 1952, played Commander William T. Riker, the first officer of the Enterprise-D, throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation and its four feature films. In Second Chances he also played Thomas Riker, a duplicate created years earlier by a transporter accident.
Frakes began directing during the third season with The Offspring and went on to helm further episodes including Reunion, The Drumhead and Cause and Effect. He then directed the feature films Star Trek: First Contact in 1996 and Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998, joining Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner as cast members who directed a Star Trek film.
He has since directed episodes of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, and he reprised Riker in Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Outside the franchise he is known as the host of the anthology series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.