HALIFAX—The man who helped launch a generation’s love of books (with the help of that catchy jingle) and played iconic roles in Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation will land in town this fall.

LeVar Burton was announced as Hal-Con’s first media guest on Monday for the city’s annual sci-fi and fantasy convention, which will be held Oct. 26-28 in the new Halifax Convention Centre.

A bio on the Hal-Con site says Burton has collected an impressive number of titles in his career; author, director, producer, TV presenter, literacy advocate, philanthropist, speaker and actor.

His first audition brought him his Emmy-winning role as Kunta Kinte in the 1970s miniseries Roots.

Shortly afterwards, Burton became the host and executive producer of Reading Rainbow, which encouraged children to fall in love with reading for “an impressive 23 seasons,” and brought us the catchy intro “Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high. Take a look, it’s in a book, a reading rainbow.”

Trekkies will know Burton best for his role as Lt. Geordi La Forge in all seven seasons (and four films) of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Burton has also appeared as himself in Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Community and The Big Bang Theory. He has lent his voice to animated projects Captain Planet and the Planeteers, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, Gargoyles, Family Guy and Batman: The Animated Series.

His latest project is a podcast called LeVarBurton Reads, which Hal-Con says “should be self-explanatory.”

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