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Star Trek The Next Generation: TNG Where Are They Now
Here's what Picard, Data and all of your favorites are up to now
Contributor
Nearly 30 years ago, they went boldly where no one had gone before, and launched the Star Trek franchise into a post-Kirk world. Do you want to know where the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation are today? Let's make it so.
Michael Dorn (Worf)
Dorn's Klingon might have been a hero--a Trek first!--but he was not to be crossed. Today, the actor continues to specialize in playing commanding characters.
Michael Dorn
Dorn, who saw Worf through the Next Generation movies and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played a psychiatrist on Castle and the president on Heroes. He's also an in-demand voice actor (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Duck Dodgers, The Lion Guard).
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)
Wheaton's boy genius was a polarizing, tolerate-him or hate-him character. For Wheaton, it was all material for future copy.
Wil Wheaton
Wheaton, an early blogging star, has written books about his Trek years. Still an actor, he had a cameo in Star Trek: Nemesis, and appears frequently on The Big Bang Theory,in addition to doing a ton of voice-over work.
LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge)
As the star of 1977's landmark Roots and the host of Reading Rainbow, Burton was initially the Next Generation's most familiar face, even if his face was at times obscured by his character's vision visor.
LeVar Burton
Burton, who played LaForge in the four Next Generation movies, remains a popular, respected figure today. He cameoed in the 2016 Roots remake, and played Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Ali, among numerous other acting credits.
Brian Bonsall (Alexander Rozhenko)
In 1992, Bonsall was a 10-year-old TV veteran (he played Alex P. Keaton's kid brother, Andy, on Family Ties) when he made his first of seven Next Generation appearances as Worf's son. Today, he's rocking another look.
Brian Bonsall
Out of acting since the mid-1990s, and now in his mid-30s, Bonsall is a punk musician who plays in the bands Lowjob and Bootjack & Bonz. You can follow him on Twitter at @mrbrianbonsall.
Denise Crosby
Crosby, who's appeared of late on Ray Donovan, executive-produced and starred in the fandom documentaries Trekkies and Trekkies 2. She also occasionally returned to Next Generation as her character's daughter.
Rosalind Chao (Keiko O'Brien)
Chao was a well-traveled veteran of M*A*S*H and other TV shows when she made the first of eight Next Generation appearances as a botanist. But her biggest role was yet to come.
Rosalind Chao
In 1993, the same year she became a semi-regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (playing her Next Generation character), Chao starred in The Joy Luck Club. Her more recent credits include The O.C. and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.
Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher)
McFadden, who played the ship's doctor and the mother of Wesley Crusher, was dismissed after the first season because, she said, she "disagreed with the writer." McFadden's Trek adventure, however, wasn't over.
Gates McFadden
When head writer Maurice Hurley left Next Generation after Season 2, McFadden was asked to return. She stayed with the crew all the way through their four big-screen adventures. She appeared in a few shorts and TV movies, and her most recent recurring TV role was on Franklin & Bash.
Diana Muldaur (Katherine Pulaski)
The prolific Muldaur, a two-time guest star on Star Trek: The Original Series, was tapped to play the Enterprise's new doctor during Next Generation's Beverly Crusher-free second season. The gig didn't last long.
Diana Muldaur
Muldaur checked out of Next Generation after just one year. She once said the Trek team wasn't "happy to have [her] there." She went on to earn two Emmy nominations for L.A. Law before leaving Hollywood to care for her ailing husband.
Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien)
Meaney worked his way up from an unnamed crew member to a recurring role as the transporter chief. The Irish actor's career outside of Trek was about to take off as well.
Colm Meaney
One of our most familiar screen faces, Meaney starred in The Commitments, and on TV's Hell on Wheels. In 1993, he and TV wife, Rosalind Chao, moved with their Trek characters to Deep Space Nine, where Meaney was a series regular. He currently has several projects in the works.
John de Lancie (Q)
Through eight Next Generation appearances, including the series' first and final episodes, de Lancie established his impish, all-powerful character as a fan favorite.
John de Lancie
De Lancie popped up as Q on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Among his 100-plus other TV and film credits, he played the father of Jesse's girlfriend on Breaking Bad.
Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi)
The London-born actress was a self-described "ugly" child who grew up to play the Enterprise's cleavage-bearing empath. Sirtis loved being on Next Generation, and that love still shows.
Marina Sirtis
Sirtis appeared in the Next Generation films, Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Voyager, and lent her voice to the fan-made series Star Trek Continues. She says she'd love to be on Star Trek: Discovery, too.
Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)
Goldberg was not far removed from her breakout in The Color Purple when she made it known she wanted to moonlight on Next Generation. Her interest, Wil Wheaton says, helped save the then-fledgling show.
Whoopi Goldberg
Goldberg, who played the wise Guinan all the way through the Next Generation movies, continues to multi-task as an actress, talk host (The View) and producer (Sister Act: The Musical). She's even done a Trek con.
Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard)
Stewart looked to be the anti-William Shatner when he took the starring role in Next Generation: He was bald, middle-aged, British and mostly unknown to Americans. That last part would change fast.
Patrick Stewart
Next Generation made Stewart a Hollywood star. By the end of his run as Picard, the actor had secured his next blockbuster job: playing Professor X in the X-Men movies. Stewart will return to the role of Picard in an upcoming CBS All Access series.
Jonathan Frakes (William Riker)
Frakes was a beefy staple of 1980s primetime soaps when he switched to sci-fi to play Picard's first officer. Next Generation, in turn, led Frakes to his next career.
Jonathan Frakes
Frakes made his directing debut on a 1990 episode of Next Generation. He's since amassed dozens of such credits in TV (The Librarians, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Star Trek: Discovery) and film (Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection).
Brent Spiner (Data)
Spiner was a Broadway vet when he was cast as the android he would remain associated with from the pilot to Star Trek: Nemesis. But don't bet on seeing him as Data anymore.
Brent Spiner
"I think I'd look ridiculous in that makeup now, because I'm just too old for that part," Spiner recently said. The 67-year-old, however, is not too old to star in the Cinemax series Outcast, and reprised his scientist role in 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence.