Specs
Who LeVar Burton
Age 57
Claim to fame Emmy-winning actor (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation); host and producer of Reading Rainbow; author of the children’s book The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm (available Oct. 7)
Base Los Angeles
Twitter @levarburton
What’s the first information you consume in the morning?
My email, followed by my Twitter feed, followed by the Today show. Twitter is where I get the majority of my news.
What other social platforms are you on?
I have a Facebook account which enables me to keep up with friends and family, but I’m much more of a voyeur there. I don’t do a whole lot of posting. It really just gives me an opportunity to stay current with what the family’s doing. I was an early adopter on Twitter, and it’s like a relationship. You have to invest in it, you know? I don’t have an Instagram account. I’m all in on Twitter, for better or worse.
Who do you follow on Twitter?
I like to follow people who make me laugh, so I follow Rob Delaney, I follow Gloria Fallon—I find Jimmy’s sister Gloria hysterically funny—I follow Jesus Christ, I follow Stewie Griffin. I really do get a lot of value out of those unexpected laughs throughout the course of the day.
Your Kickstarter campaign to revive Reading Rainbow raised $5.4 million. Had you ever done any sort of crowdfunding before?
I had pledged to a couple of campaigns, but this was my first crowdfunding effort. I had been aware of Kickstarter for a couple of years and watched it mature, and with the success of Zach Braff’s movie and the Veronica Mars campaign, it really felt to me like it had come of age, and that gave me some confidence that we would be able reach our goal, which was $1 million.
What’s your favorite app?
I travel a lot, so my weather apps are really important to me. I use Clear Day and WeatherPro. I also use Flight Tracker a lot. And I get about 200 emails a day, so I love Mailstrom. It gives me the ability to go through and organize and clean up my various email inboxes.
What TV shows do you watch?
I’m a huge fan of the binge-watching model. I just finished watching Luther. I think that Idris Elba should be the next James Bond. I knocked out four seasons of Game of Thrones in two and a half weeks and am reading the books now. I’ve got the Syfy series Defiance in my queue now, and I still have to start House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. That’s my fall television viewing.
What’s on your reading list?
Like I said, right now I’m reading Game of Thrones. I’ve always got science fiction on my reading list so I’m rereading some Octavia Butler. Her latest book is in my queue as well, but I haven’t had a chance to get to it because Game of Thrones has had me totally wrapped around its gauntlet.
How do you wind down at night?
I read! I put my iPad in night mode so as not to wake my wife, but also because it’s said that the bright screen actually interferes with your sleep patterns. That way, there are no arguments and everybody gets what they need. I get to read, she gets to sleep.