[LeVar Burton] If you're gonna tell stories, you might as well tell the big ones, right?
The ones that have the opportunity to be the most inspiring, to hit people where they live.
[Kate Sullivan] He is a master storyteller.
You know him from Roots, Star Trek, and Reading Rainbow.
[LeVar] To be from a family for whom it would have been illegal for me to know how to read just a few generations ago and to have grown up and become a symbol for literacy advocacy, especially for children.
Are you kidding me?
[Kate] Today, LeVar Burton is taking me to his favorite restaurant to eat what he loves and find out why he loves it.
[LeVar] And the French fries here are the best in LA.
They absolutely are.
[Kate] Okay, now you're talking.
[LeVar] No no I'm serious.
They are unparalleled.
[Kate] We're discussing his remarkable career: the highs and the lows.
[LeVar] I'll bet on myself every time.
But what I learned from the Jeopardy!
experience was that I don't know everything.
[Kate] And then, how literacy and imagination are freedom to LeVar and fuel his quest for a better world.
[LeVar] Amidst all of the turmoil that we are experiencing in this country today, it makes me ever more determined to fight for the America that I believe in.
And we will not be denied.
♪ [Kate] What's better in life than a bottle of wine, great food and an amazing conversation?
My name is Kate Sullivan and I am the host of To Dine For .
I'm a journalist, a foodie, a traveler, with an appetite for the stories of people who are hungry for more.
Dreamers.
Visionaries.
Artists.
Those who hustle hard in the direction they love.
I travel with them to their favorite restaurant, to hear how they did it.
This show is a toast to them and their American dream.
To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... [Announcer] There are people in your life who count on you for what matters most.
American National agents are close to home and committed to our communities.
They'll help you find the right coverage for you, your family, even your farm and business.
You can learn more at americannational.com.
♪ ♪ Lavazza has worked towards perfecting the art of blending coffee for four generations, celebrating coffee in all its forms.
Lavazza Classico can be brewed however you take your coffee.
Lavazza.
Devoted to coffee since 1895.
[Kate] Hi everyone!
Today I'm in Sherman Oaks, California, on my way into a beloved local, French restaurant named Mistral.
The person who chose this as their favorite restaurant is an actor, a director, and a creative force of nature.
I can't wait for you to meet LeVar Burton.
[Kate] LeVar!
How are you?
[LeVar] Hi Kate, how are you?
[Kate] Thank you for doing this.
[LeVar] It's my pleasure.
I love this place.
[Kate] Right off the famed Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, California is a restaurant called Mistral.
This old-school French bistro is warm and inviting: just like LeVar.
[Kate] Oh, this place is so lovely, it really is.
The energy of this restaurant is great.
[LeVar] It's been in the neighborhood uh, for a long, long time.
[Kate] Mistral, named after the mistral wind in the south of France, opened 35 years ago, and has been named by OpenTable as one of the top 100 restaurants in the country.
Locals love to come through the door and be taken care of by owner Henri Abergel and his team.
[Henri Abergel] The one thing I stress uh, is hospitality.
So I, when you come into Mistral, it's like coming into my home.
I take care of you and I make sure that at the end of the meal, you are very happy.
When they go out to dinner, they have a choice, and the fact that they pick to come to Mistral, I really appreciate it.
[Kate] That hospitality has led to an abundance of regulars at Mistral.
Some of whom Henri lets keep a running tab at the restaurant.
Yes, that really does still happen.
It is clear that Henri's presence is the real secret to the bistro's success.
[Henri] I'm uh, very stubborn.
I come to work every day, seven days a week.
If you have enough passion, you will probably succeed.
Passion, hard work, respect for your employees, respect for your customers, respect for the food that you serve.
[Kate] Today, over an endive salad with pear and crumbled bleu cheese, steak au poivre with frites, and a glass of red wine from the Rhône Valley, I sit down with actor, host, director, and storyteller LeVar Burton to take a look into his illustrious life and career.
[Kate] First of all, thank you for bringing me to this beautiful restaurant.
[LeVar] Isn't it lovely here?
[Kate] Oh, it is so lovely!
It is just got such a great energy.
You could have chosen any restaurant in LA, why Mistral?
[LeVar] Because it's my neighborhood bistro!
[Kate] You actually eat here?
[LeVar] I do!
And have been and have been doing for 35 years.
[Kate] Wow!
[LeVar] Yeah.
[Kate] What is it about this place?
[LeVar] It's Henri.
[Kate] It's Henri.
[LeVar] And he's not simply in the hospitality business, he is hospitality, right?
[Kate] He embodies it.
[LeVar] He does!
He does, and he comes by that um, that that talent naturally.
When I am asked the question what will be your, if you could, you know, have your final meal, right, what would that be?
I always answer steak au poivre, and Mistral does it just the way I like it.
[Kate] Oh, I love that, yes.
[LeVar] Yeah.
And the French fries here are the best in LA.
They absolutely are.
[Kate] Okay, now you're talking.
[LeVar] No, no, I'm serious.
They are unparalleled.
[Kate] And ooh, hello Henri!
[LeVar] Wow.
[Henri] Hello.
(both laugh) [Kate] What do we have, Henri?
[Henri] An endive salad, with crumbled bleu cheese and fresh pear.
[Kate] Oh, wow, looks great.
[Henri] Couple turns.
[Kate] Yes, thank you.
[Henri] LeVar?
[LeVar] Yes sir, until your arm falls off.
[Henri] There you are!
(laughter) I see.
[Kate] Yeah he likes the pepper?
[LeVar] There you go.
Thank you Henri, thank you so much sir.
[Kate] I know that you were born in Landstuhl, Germany- [LaVar] Mm hmm.
[Kate] -And you grew up in California.
[LeVar] I did!
[Kate] So, tell me a little about your childhood growing up in California.
Who was the biggest influence on your life?
[LeVar] My Mom.
[Kate] Really?
[LeVar] Like, hands down.
Single parent, raised three children by herself, put us all through Catholic school.
Was very supportive of my initial desire to become a a priest.
[Kate] You wanted to be a priest?
[LeVar] I studied for four years.
[Kate] Did you really?
And then you pivoted to acting?
[LeVar] Mm-hm.
[Kate] (Laughs) Okay, let's talk about that!
You were going to be a priest, and you pivot to acting.
Why?
[LeVar] Well the real answer is that I-I-I found myself becoming interested in the world outside of Catholicism and the...and the church, and I began to think a lot about the world and my place in it.
And I had decided to become a priest when I was really a little kid; I was eight, um, and entered the seminary when I was thirteen.
And then I had to think of, so, what is it that I want to do and I had recently discovered theater arts and it had really brought a lot of joy- [Kate] Yeah.
[LeVar] -into my life and I thought, you know, it was one of those in the mirror in the bathroom moments, "What am I going to do with myself," you know?
[Kate] Yes!
[LeVar] The ripe old age of sixteen, I thought... "What am I gonna do now!"
[Kate] (Laughs) "What am I doing?!"
[LeVar] Had a crisis!
Right?
[Kate] That crisis changed the trajectory of LeVar's life.
He then enrolled at the USC School of Dramatic Arts.
During his sophomore year, LeVar auditioned for the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley's novel.
LeVar got the role, he went on to get an Emmy nomination for his performance as Kunta Kinte, a Gambian teenager who was captured, brought to America, and sold into slavery.
[Kate] Your first role of Kunta Kinte, you were 19?
What an amazing, epic role to be one of your first forays into acting.
[LeVar] My first professional audition.
[Kate] Incredible!
So, what did that role do for you, and how did it shape your career?
[LeVar] (Chuckles) How did Roots shape my career?
I...
Roots gave me a career, and it introduced me to the power of storytelling in an indelible way.
I was aware you know, through exposure to to literature and living with my Mom, who was an avid reader and English teacher and so there was an emphasis in her house on, on literature and I was thrilled to be able to be a part of storytelling that had an impact on people because as a seminarian, and... that's what I was going for: to have an impact on people.
[Kate] Did you get at the tender age of 19 just how profound that role really was?
[LeVar] No.
[Kate] No.
[LeVar] No.
[Kate] So, what did that very first role teach you about the power of story?
[LeVar] Not only can television be um... an essential tool in the service of storytelling, but it can also serve through its engagement factor as an opportunity to change people's lives, to change the way they think and feel, that the power of storytelling, is its impact on the audience.
[Kate] And talk about range, when you think about that first role in Roots, and then shifting gears talking about Geordi La Forge in Star Trek.
What was it like being a part of such an amazing American franchise for so long?
[LeVar] I was a huge fan of Star Trek before I got the role.
[Kate] Were you?
[LeVar] Oh yeah my family, we watched it all the time, my mother, my sisters and I.
[Kate] I think of being a fan of Star Trek sort of akin to being the fan of a sports team: it like unites people of all different types.
What is it like for you personally to be part of, sort of, that family?
[LeVar] Yeah, it's family on so many different levels, right?
And what we're rooting for when we're watching Star Trek is the future of humanity, and that's no small thing.
[Kate] How profound is that, right?
(Laughs) [LeVar] Well... if you're gonna tell stories, you might as well tell the big ones, right?
The ones that have the opportunity to be the most inspiring, to hit people where they live.
[Kate] Yeah.
[LeVar] And you know, through these little morality plays, um Gene was able to address the human condition in the now.
[LeVar] Right?
[Kate] Yes.
With the original series and and I really believe that The Next Generation carried on in that tradition with the stories that were told.
[Kate] Mm.
Oooh!
[Henri] Oooh Miss Kate, look at that.
[Kate] Are those capers?
[Henri] Your favorite.
[LeVar] Thank you Henri, thank you so much.
[Henri] Green peppercorn.
[Kate] Oh my goodness.
Green peppercorn!
Oh, that looks amazing, thank you Henri.
Henri and his team outdid themselves with their signature steak au poivre.
A prime New York steak perfectly cooked with a peppercorn crust and sauce and Mistral's famous French fries.
[Kate] This looks spectacular.
(Laughs) [LeVar] It is, um... enjoy.
[Kate] Thank you!
[LeVar] Really, enjoy.
Wow, and it's perfectly cooked.
[LeVar] It is, it is, it is.
[Kate] They didn't ask what, how I'd like it, but this is exactly how I like it!
Mm.
Mmmmm....(Giggles) (sings a note in praise) [LeVar] Right?
[Kate] If someone were to read your resume, and to read your filmography of everything you've done, it looks like you had a charmed career.
[LeVar] (Chuckles) Yeah.
[Kate] Here you are at 19 getting the role of a lifetime, Star Trek one of the great American franchises, you become an American icon, really, through Reading Rainbow.
[Kate] In 1983, LeVar became the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow, a children's television series that aired on PBS.
Every episode of the show featured a different children's book, and LeVar would talk to guests and visit places that related to the story.
The show produced 155 episodes through 2006, and won more than 200 broadcast awards, including a Peabody award and 26 Emmy awards.
Even longer than the list of awards is the list of children whose love of reading was inspired by Reading Rainbow.
[Kate] How did you get the job of Reading Rainbow?
[LeVar] The executive producers of Reading Rainbow were looking for a host, and they they tracked me down and pitched over the phone the idea of this television series that captured kids in front of the TV during the summer months, and helped them form a relationship with the written word, right?
[Kate] Mm.
Take a child who can read and by the virtue of engagement, turn them into a reader for life: I was in!
[Kate] It's so obvious that your intention throughout your career is great storytelling, but at what point do you personally, did it become your intention, right?
At what point did that kick in and say, "Wow, this may be my mission?"
[LeVar] I have not always referred to myself as a storyteller, as I do now.
This is, this is a long time, this is over fifty years in the making.
It is only recently that I have really felt comfortable calling myself that.
[Kate] Even though you've done that your whole career?
[LeVar] Even though I've done it my whole career!
I just feel like I can own it now, right?
[Kate] Well you are a true expert.
[LeVar] And and only by necessity, really, because as an actor, I recognized just how difficult it was for me to sit around and wait for the phone to ring and so I had to develop different skill sets.
Becoming a director was really key to that process, and a producer on Reading Rainbow, and then developing as a writer, and it all unfolded quite naturally, but it's it's not, the vision that I had for myself.
[Kate] In a way, Reading Rainbow doesn't seem congruent with Star Trek or with Kunta Kinte, but, looking back, you can actually see it.
[LeVar] It's absolutely part of the same whole, without question.
[Kate] Yeah.
[LeVar] Yeah.
[Kate] You have said that literacy is akin to freedom.
[LeVar] Sure it is.
[Kate] And I'd love to hear why you are so passionate about literacy, specifically with young people.
[LeVar] Because if you can read in at least one language, then your mind is free.
Unshackle-able, if that is a word.
It is now.
[Kate] Mm hm.
No one can hold sway over you, because you have the ability, the wherewithal to pick up a book, and take a look, right?
And determine the truth for yourself, and that is freedom.
To be from a family for whom it would have been illegal for me to know how to read just a few generations ago, an offense to society, punishable by whipping or death, even, and to have grown up to become a symbol for literacy advocacy, especially for children.
Are you kidding me?
I just recently spent an experience with Henry Louis Gates, and he he gave me the gift of my genealogy.
[Kate] What was that like?
[LeVar] (breathes out) It was one of the best days of my life.
[Kate] Was it?
[LeVar] Yeah.
[Kate] Why?
[LeVar] Because he gave me a piece of myself that I did not have before.
And he reinforced for me how fervently my family, my bloodline, has fought for this country to be the nation that it can be.
I have skin in this game, big time.
[Kate] And that knowledge was probably something you didn't realize when you got the Reading Rainbow gig.
[LeVar] No, no, wasn't even something I realized when I got the Roots gig.
[Kate] Wow!
So, what is it like to step into that knowledge?
What you just said to me is so powerful.
[LeVar] It's empowering, it's empowering, it's empowering.
And amidst all of the turmoil that we are experiencing in this country today, it makes me evermore determined to fight for the America that I believe in.
Because I deserve it, and I've earned it.
My family has earned it.
And we will not be denied.
[Kate] Yeah.
Yeah.
Sometimes you just have to let something hang in the air... (Both burst into laughter) [Kate] Do you know what I mean?
There is, you've gotta let, as a great director you know, there are times that you- [LeVar] Let the moment play.
[Kate] After a career full of seizing opportunities, LeVar has decided to start creating his own.
His company LeVar Burton Entertainment, creates both scripted and nonscripted stories for television, film, podcasts, and other mediums.
[LeVar] We say at LeVar Burton Entertainment that we tell stories that foster community, that champion diversity, and that encourage empathy.
But what we're doing when we do that is we're inviting people into their imaginations, right?
And I think that imagination is the superpower of human beings, it really is.
[Kate] Imagination is the superpower of human beings.
[LeVar] Yeah.
Everything in this world, right, that we have made or manufactured began as a thought in the mind of some... person.
[Kate] I'm curious to hear from you... at what point in your career you realized you could write your own story?
[LeVar] I don't know that that's ever been a real conscious realization on my part.
What I did realize was that through living an authentic life, I could live a story that was my own.
That was a part of my destiny.
I believe that we have all come into this realm with specific intentions on a soulular level, right?
Which soulular level.
[Kate] A soulular, ooh I love that.
[LeVar] Not cellular- [Both] Soulular.
[LeVar] Right.
That we're all here for a reason, right?
And that it's our responsibility as we grow and mature to discover what that is and I believe that it is generally based around our passions.
Whatever it is that we are passionate about is what tends to bring us joy, and it is our joy that is the key to discovering what your purpose is.
[Kate] Oh, that's great!
[LeVar] If I had known when I was 40 that I'd be here 25 years later.
[Kate] Yeah.
[LeVar] I'd have had a whole quarter of a century of... [Kate] Breathing.
[LeVar] Breathing.
(Sighs) That's it, of breathing.
For a long time I lived my life like I was being chased, right.
[Kate] Like you had something to prove?
[LeVar] Like I had something to prove and that and that what was chasing me was negative judgment of who I am, right.
[Kate] You didn't see that you were a beloved character?
[LeVar] Not immediately.
I mean, it was, it's a...it's a gradual thing, right?
A career.
Um- [Kate] Because you are a beloved character.
[LeVar] Well, thank you.
[Kate] You are!
(LeVar sighs) [LeVar] One of my least favorite words used to be "process."
I had to learn how to sit in my discomfort, in order to live my life more authentically.
[Kate] LeVar's career has been full of highs and lows.
"Lessons," LeVar says.
In 2021, LeVar served as a guest host on Jeopardy!
while the show searched for Alex Trebek's successor.
LeVar wanted the role badly and felt he was destined for it.
[LeVar] Now, I've been watching Jeopardy!
since I was in the third grade, with Art Fleming, and we watched Jeopardy!
almost every night of my life, I felt like, I should be the next host of Jeopardy!
I'm a huge fan, I badgered Trebek for years to do Celebrity Jeopardy!
and he always said, "Well LeVar, we can't, you know, (Kate laughs) dumb down the questions for celebrity contestants."
Finally for whatever reason, they decided to do it, and I got on and I won, on Jeopardy!
I felt like there was a part of my destiny that was linked to that job.
I felt very strongly about it.
What I discovered was that wasn't true.
[Kate] Mm.
[LeVar] But what the passion that led me to that moment did deliver was an opportunity to sit in my discomfort and figure out why, right?
[Kate] And what did you learn?
[LeVar] I learned that Jeopardy!
and my desire to host that show put me in a position to be rejected, for the world around me to recognize, "Wow, but he's got such great hosting skills, right?"
And so the Rose Parade called, and said, "We would love for you to be the Grand Marshal in our parade to kick off 2022."
And then the National Spelling Bee called and they said, "Would you please consider hosting the spelling bee this year?"
And then Hasbro called and they said, "You know, we have this little IP called Trivial Pursuit and we want to turn it into a game show for television, and we can't think of anyone we would like to host that show more than you."
[Kate] Something better was headed your way.
[LeVar] And you have to be willing to acknowledge that we don't always know what's best for us.
I'll bet on myself every time, but what I learned from the Jeopardy!
experience was that I don't know everything.
But being in the moment and being open to that which is true is always going to lead you to the next step.
And I tell kids all the time, take the step that's in front of you, right?
Don't try and write the end of the story while you're still at the beginning of a chapter because life, like walking, is a controlled fall.
We go along like this and unless we stick that other foot out there, we're going to fall on our faces.
Life, like walking, is a controlled fall.
Take the step that's in front of you, the next step will reveal itself, and then the next step, and then the next step, and then soon, before you know it, before you know it, you've been in the business for over fifty some odd years, and you've had a career that has spanned the breadth of the Black experience in America, from Kunta to Geordi, from slavery to the stars, and I feel like LeVar, the Reading Rainbow guy, is smack dab in the middle of that spectrum.
[Kate] What would you like your legacy to be?
[LeVar] Mmmm.
Hmm?
(chuckles) He believed in the power of story, and he lived it.
[Kate] Thank you, for this amazing conversation.
(glasses clink) Cheers to you.
[LeVar] Cheers to you.
[Kate] What an extraordinary meal with LeVar Burton, at his favorite neighborhood restaurant!
A place that has seen its share of ups and downs, but has survived and thrived: just like LeVar.
With age comes wisdom, and LeVar shows us that in great detail in this conversation.
"True freedom," he says, "sometimes comes from liberating yourself from yourself."
LeVar is no doubt a master storyteller, and telling great stories has been an integral part of all that he has done.
But what I learned most from LeVar is that the greatest story we can tell is the one we tell ourselves, about life, who we are, and what is possible in this world.
♪ ♪ [Kate] If you would like to know more about the guests, the restaurants, and the inspiring stories of success, please visit todinefortv.com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at To Dine For TV.
We also have a podcast, To Dine For the podcast is available on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... ♪ ♪ [Announcer] There are people in your life who count on you for what matters most.
American National agents are close to home and committed to our communities.
They'll help you find the right coverage for you, your family, even your farm and business.
You can learn more at americannational.com.
Lavazza has worked towards perfecting the art of blending coffee for four generations, celebrating coffee in all its forms.
Lavazza Classico can be brewed however you take your coffee.
Lavazza.
Devoted to coffee since 1895.
