George Takei

George Takei was born in Los Angeles in 1937, and he was the oldest living child of three children. In the months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, when Takei was five years old, he and his family were incarcerated—alongside many other Japanese Americans—in internment camps, meant to protect national security by sequestering Japanese Americans in secure locations away from the general public. Following their release in 1946, the Takei family returned to Los Angeles, where Takei’s father returned to the dry cleaning business and eventually became a very successful real estate agent. Takei studied acting at UCLA and, after a number of smaller stage and television roles, was cast in the role of Officer Sulu in Star Trek. This role would catapult Takei to fame. In addition to acting, Takei has been a vocal activist for much of his adult life. He’s been especially supportive of LGBT rights for decades. Though Takei didn’t publically come out until 2005, his sexuality has been something of an open secret since the 1970s. He married his long-time partner, Brad Altman, in 2008. In addition to founding the Japanese American History Museum and speaking out about his experience in internment camps during World War II, Takei has also criticized moves to place restrictions on any ethnic or racial group, particularly Muslims.