Geek of the Week: Nichelle Nichols

Here we honor Muggle geeks who embody Ravenclaw spirit...when they succeed, they soar, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly!

Nichelle Nichols (b. 1932)

"I said 'Gene, I've been watching each of the episodes and they each get better and better ... and I discovered something: you're writing morality plays.' And he said, 'Shhh. They haven't figured it out yet.' "

Nichelle Nichols is made of awesome, and if you didn't already know that fact, then know it now.  She is known for her role on Star Trek as communications officer Lieutenant (eventually Commander) Uhura, but Nichols wasn't satisified with resting on her good looks and gravitas: she got cerebral with it.  She named her own character (with tweaks from Gene Roddenberry, of course) based on the Swahili word for freedom.  A now-famous conversation with "the biggest Trekkie on the planet," Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., convinced Nichols to stay with Star Trek in the prominent role. It's a good thing, too, as her groundbreaking work has inspired real-life astronauts (Mae Jemison), actors (Whoopi Goldberg), and world leaders (US President Barack Obama) alike.

Her groundbreaking work AFTER her stint on Star Trek is even more impressive.  Nichols took NASA for its lack of diversity and volunteered her time to assist the space agency in recruiting minority and female personnel, including the first American woman in space, Sally Ride.  She has a namesake asteroid and two released music albums (one of them space-themed).

Find out more about Nichelle Nichols on Wikipedia.