The Best Star Trek Actor From Each State
By Jeremy Dick
Indiana – Avery Brooks
The actor Avery Brooks hails from Evansville, Indiana. After getting into acting, his first break on television came in 1985. Brooks was cast as Hawk on the ABC detective series Spenser: For Hire. He became so popular on the show that he would appear in several films spawned from the series, as well as his own spinoff show.
Even so, Brooks’ role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is probably his best known. On the series, he plays Commander Benjamin Sisko (later Captain Sisko). He beat out over one hundred other actors of all ethnic backgrounds to gain the role. It not only made him the first African American Star Trek captain, but it made Brooks the second African American actor in American TV history to lead a first-run television drama. Only Bill Cosby in I Spy had come before it.
Brooks would go on to have a prominent role in American History X. Since then, his acting appearances have been few and far between. However he is known to attend Star Trek and science fiction conventions all over the world. As one of the captains of the Star Trek universe, he’ll always have a place in the hearts of the Trekkies.