Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols: a life in pictures

Grace Dell Nichols was born in Robbins, Illinois on 28December 1932. She didn’t like her first name and her parents changed it to Nichelle.

Mister Buddwing, 1966

Before Star Trek, Nichols sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton and appeared in bit parts, like here, credited as Dice Player in the James Garner vehicle

Star Trek, 1966-1969

Nichols as Lt Nyota Uhura, Communications Officer of the Starship Enterprise.

Nichols on the January 1967 cover of Ebony magazine. Nichols had wanted to leave Star Trek but was persuaded not to by Dr Martin Luther King, who described her as a role model

Star Trek, 1968

Nichols’ Uhura shares a kiss with William Shatner’s Captain James T Kirk in Plato’s Stepchildren. Although not the first onscreen interracial kiss, it was, in 1968, the most significant

Star Trek: The Animated Series, 1973-74

Nichols had to wait for the animated show to take centre stage. The live action series always centred around Kirk and Spock, but in The Lorelei Signal, Uhura leads the women of the Enterprise to rescue Captain Kirk and his landing party

Truck Turner, 1974

Nichols, pictured with Isaac Hayes, in the only Blaxploitation film she appeared in

The cast of Star Trek, including Nichelle Nichols, attend the unveiling of the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the NASA/Rockwell International Space Division assembly plant at Palmdale, California on 17 September 1976

Nichols using a treadmill at NASA in 1977 during her time working with the agency to encourage more women and people of colour into the space programme

Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979

A publicity shot of Nichelle Nichols as the newly promoted Lt Commander Uhura

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982

George Takai as Sulu, Walter Koenig as Chekov, James Doohan as Scotty, William Shatner as Kirk, DeForest Kelley as McCoy, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and Kirstie Allie as Saavik attend the space burial of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 1984

As Commander Uhura

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986

DeForest Kelley as McCoy, James Doohan as Scotty, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, Walter Koenig as Chekov and William Shatner as Kirk

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, 1989

Nichols looks on as director and star William Shatner talks through a scene with Walter Koenig and Laurence Luckinbill

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991

Nichols promoting her book Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories in June 1995

DeForest Kelley, William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols at Shatner’s annual Hollywood Horse Show in Los Angeles on 1 April 1996. The event raised money for children’s charities

Steven Spielberg, Wolfgang Petersen, Nichelle Nichols and Joan Collins at the Golden Camera Awards in Germany on 9 February 1999. Nichols picked up the Millennium Award for cult star of the last century

Snow Dogs, 2002

Nichols with Cuba Gooding Jr in the Hollywood comedy

Heroes, 2007

Nichols appeared in five episodes of the hit sci-fi television series playing Nana Dawson, pictured with Dana Davis as Monica Dawson and Noah Gray-Cabey as Micah Sanders

Nichols expresses her support for striking members of the Writers Guild of America outside the gates of Paramount Pictures studios in Los Angeles

US President Barack Obama gives the Vulcan salute with Nichelle Nichols in the Oval Office of the White House on 29 February 2012

Nichols photographed on 30 September 2016. The year that she was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, she spoke to the Guardian about her life

Nichols with Sonequa Martin-Green at the premiere of the new television series Star Trek: Discovery in Los Angeles on 19 September 2017

Nichols with her son Kyle Johnson at the 2019 Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas on 31 July 2019