American actress and singer whose portrayal of Uhura was groundbreaking for Black women on American television and who later recruited astronauts for NASA.
Nichelle Nichols (1932–2022) was an American actress, singer and dancer. Before Star Trek she performed as a singer and appeared on stage and in television guest roles.
As communications officer Nyota Uhura, Nichols played one of the first Black women in a major non-stereotypical role on American television. She said that Martin Luther King Jr. personally encouraged her to remain with the series when she considered leaving after the first season. Her kiss with William Shatner in Plato's Stepchildren (1968) is often cited as one of the first interracial kisses on American scripted television. She voiced Uhura in The Animated Series and played her in all six original-cast films.
From 1977 she worked with NASA on a recruitment campaign that helped bring women and minority candidates into the astronaut corps, including Sally Ride and Guion Bluford, and she continued to promote space exploration for decades. She died in 2022.