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It's been nearly 40 years since the show's 1987 premiere. Here's where the cast is now.
In 1987, Paramount pulled off what many thought was impossible: successfully recreating the magic of Star Trek with a brand-new show. That show was Star Trek: The Next Generation, which followed a very different crew of intrepid explorers on their voyages through the stars.
The new series exceeded expectations, kicking off a golden age for the franchise that included three spinoff series and four feature films. More recently, the TNG cast enjoyed a quasi-reunion during the final season of Star Trek: Picard, a revival that gave fans and actors alike the closure they had long been hoping for.
The Next Generation aired its final episode in 1994, and the last feature film starring this beloved crew, Star Trek: Nemesis, hit theaters in 2002. What have your favorite crew members been up to since they first hung up their Starfleet uniforms? What have they been doing since Picard ended, and where can you catch more recent work from the performers who taught us the value of boldly going where no one has gone before?
You don't need to ask Q or visit the Guardian of Forever — just keep reading to see where the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation is now.
01 of 08
Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard)
To usher Star Trek into a new era, Patrick Stewart was cast as one of the franchise's most important characters: Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the USS Enterprise.
He was very different from Captain Kirk, preferring to solve problems through stirring speeches rather than Kirk's brand of cowboy diplomacy. He commanded the respect of his entire crew, but his stern demeanor softened over time as audiences realized what his crew eventually did: beneath the baritone and formal demeanor, Picard was an upright moral exemplar and the ultimate embodiment of a Starfleet officer.
The Yorkshire native told EW in 2023 that he and his crew felt like real-world ministers: “It was about truth and fairness and honesty and respect for others, no matter who they were or what strange alien creature they looked like… If they needed help, Jean-Luc Picard and his crew, his team, were there to give it.”
Since the series’ end, Stewart has kept busy — and not just by turning his small-screen captain into a big-screen hero with the franchise’s film continuations. He landed a second signature genre role as Professor X in X-Men (2000), a role he's revisited over the past quarter century — in one timeline iteration or another. He'll next reprise the character in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2026).
Still, over the years he’s found time to channel his villainous side in movies like Conspiracy Theory (1997) and Green Room (2016).
Unsurprisingly, he’s put his voice to use across several episodes of American Dad and various other voice performances. In the flesh, he recently completed his Star Trek swan song with the three-season series Star Trek: Picard.
Stewart has been married to Sunny Ozell since 2013. He also has two children from a previous marriage.
02 of 08
Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker)
While Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard broke from William Shatner's Captain Kirk, Jonathan Frakes embodied Riker, a character deliberately created in Kirk's mold. As the first officer of the Enterprise, Riker exuded confidence, swagger, and just enough cockiness to keep things interesting. He was the fun officer, one who could just as easily bro out with Klingons and dispense romantic advice to Wesley Crusher as he could command a starship.
“I didn’t know enough about Star Trek to know that that was life changing,” Frakes told SyFy in 2022. “Looking back 35 years, it was hugely significant.”
Riker was also the resident ladies’ man, but the series — and especially the later films — made it clear that he never stopped loving Deanna Troi, his former “Imzadi” turned Enterprise colleague.
While The Next Generation made Frakes a household name as an actor, it also launched his prolific directing career. He helmed eight episodes of The Next Generation as well as two feature films, Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Star Trek: Insurrection (1998). He has since maintained a busy career behind the camera, primarily in television, directing episodes of multiple Star Trek series along with The Librarians, Burn Notice, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Orville, and many others.
The Pennsylvania native has been married to Genie Francis since 1988, and they have two children.
03 of 08
Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher)
Compared to some of his The Next Generation costars, Gates McFadden had a tumultuous time on the show. As Dr. Beverly Crusher, she was one of the Enterprise’s most important officers. She was also Wesley Crusher’s mother and shared a complicated history with Captain Picard, her late husband’s closest friend. Over the course of the series, that relationship evolved into one of Star Trek’s most enduring slow-burning romances.
Despite her terrific performance, McFadden was written out ahead of season 2 by controversial showrunner Maurice Hurley. She returned after Hurley’s departure, reclaiming her place aboard the Enterprise for the remainder of the series.
Before joining The Next Generation, McFadden worked as a choreographer on several Jim Henson productions, including Labyrinth (1986), while also teaching theater and dance. Since TNG ended, she has continued teaching while reprising Dr. Crusher in both Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Prodigy.
McFadden doesn’t mind Star Trek looming so large in her career because she loves the franchise’s message.
“I am completely in awe of how the show has given us a positive future and positive messages about how we can behave with ethics,” she told Inverse. “There are so many amazing human beings who are in the casts of all of these shows. And I like all of them. It's amazing.”
04 of 08
Brent Spiner (Data)
Nobody on Star Trek: The Next Generation faced quite the acting challenge that Brent Spiner did. As Operations Officer Data, he played an android determined to understand the human emotional experience. Data longed to experience emotions himself — something he eventually achieved with the help of an emotion chip — as part of his ongoing quest to become more human.
Spiner rose to the challenge with a performance that emphasized Data’s synthetic nature while subtly hinting at the humanity lurking beneath his yellow eyes. He quickly became — and remains — one of the franchise’s most beloved characters.
“The part and the show was a gift and I am eternally grateful,” Spiner told Vice in 2012. “The only thing that bothers me… is when people see me and shout, ‘DATA! DATA’! I’m fine with people recognizing me. I just wish they shouted, ‘Guy who played Data!’”
While Star Trek has cast a long shadow over Spiner’s career, he found another memorable sci-fi role as the eccentric Area 51 scientist Dr. Brakish Okun in Independence Day (1996), a part he reprised in the expanded role for the 2016 sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence.
The Texas native has also appeared in series including Threshold, Outcast, and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Most recently, he guest-starred in two episodes of Night Court.
05 of 08
LeVar Burton (Lieutenant Geordi La Forge)
When LeVar Burton was cast on The Next Generation, he was already a familiar face to audiences. That was due in part to his Emmy-nominated performance in Roots, but even more so to his role as the longtime host of the children's series Reading Rainbow, which earned him 12 Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.
Though he was a familiar face, TNG partially covered it up: As Geordi, Burton wore a now-iconic VISOR over his eyes. His character was blind, but the futuristic device allowed him to perceive the world around him. Geordi was notoriously unlucky in love, but he was every bit the miracle worker that James Doohan's Scotty had been. He was also Data's best friend, and their relationship remains one of the series' highlights.
The veteran actor told Entertainment Weekly in 2007 that "we were all very nervous" in the beginning, but "by the end of season 2... we really began to hit our stride. We never stopped. We never slowed down until ['All Good Things...']."
Even when TNG was at its height, Burton was branching out into voice acting while continuing his Reading Rainbow duties. Over the years, he also became an acclaimed audiobook narrator, earning a Grammy Award for his recording of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.—a fitting honor, given that he portrayed King in Michael Mann's Ali (2001).
While he also appeared in all four TNG films and Star Trek: Picard, the Sacramento native has kept busy elsewhere with his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, and as the host of The CW's Trivial Pursuit.
Burton and his wife, Stephanie Cozart, have been married since 1992 and have two children.
06 of 08
Marina Sirtis (Lieutenant Commander Deanna Troi)
Marina Sirtis was the heart of The Next Generation in a fairly literal way. She played Deanna Troi, a half-Betazoid whose empathic abilities let her pick up on everyone else's emotions. This was sometimes used in a tactical way, such as when Picard needed to know whether an enemy was lying. Most of the time, though, those abilities helped her fulfill her role as the ship's counselor.
Thanks to her keen emotional understanding, she helped everyone from Data to even Q better understand humanity. When she wasn't counseling or scarfing chocolate, Troi enjoyed spending time with Riker, a former lover from before her time aboard the Enterprise.
While Sirtis had small roles in films like Death Wish 3 (1985), it was The Next Generation that put her on the map. She later reprised the role in guest appearances on Voyager, Enterprise, Lower Decks, and Picard—not to mention the four Next Generation feature films.
Over the years, the British actress has done everything from a supporting role in the Best Picture winner Crash (2004) to voicing the memorable villain Matriarch Benezia in the Mass Effect video game series. Still, she's held a special fondness for TNG all along.
"I've never gotten over the end of the show," she said in a 2011 interview. "To this day, if I go to Paramount for a meeting or an audition, I always have to walk past our stages... I miss seeing my friends every day... TV is the dream job, and Star Trek was the pinnacle of my dream job."
07 of 08
Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf)
Michael Dorn's character served an important symbolic function. He played Worf, the Klingon tactical officer aboard the Enterprise. The presence of a Klingon, one of Starfleet's oldest enemies, on the bridge of the Federation flagship is a powerful indicator of what can be accomplished through dedicated diplomacy.
Accordingly, Worf had his share of meaty storylines related to his Klingon heritage. This included defending his father’s honor from a traitor, ending a civil war among his people, and even hanging around with cloned Klingon Jesus. Dorn would go on to play Worf in all of the Next Generation movies and four seasons of Deep Space Nine, making him the most prolific actor in Star Trek history.
He still fondly remembers The Next Generation, which kicked off his career and gave him a surprising amount of flexibility.
“Only later did I have a small meeting with Gene [Roddenberry] and I asked him what he wanted from the character. He said ‘Make it your own. Don’t listen to or go by anything you’ve heard in the past.’ Which was smart on his part,” he said in a 2012 interview. “When an actor has the freedom to create his own character's back story and personality, he has an ‘investment’ in the character, and so he is more committed to making it great.”
Outside his signature role, Dorn has become a prolific voice actor, with his work being heard in Adventure Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Invincible, and so many more.
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08 of 08
Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)
Poor Wil Wheaton didn't make a great first impression on early The Next Generation fans, joining the cast when he was just 15 years old. He played Wesley Crusher, who was written as a precocious (and often annoying) child prodigy in season 1.
Fortunately, he mellowed out over time and got better storylines — including his long-awaited admission to Starfleet Academy and, later, his decision to leave Starfleet altogether to travel the cosmos with the Traveler.
"I love that TNG is as beloved by parents and their children today as it was when we started a quarter century ago," he said in 2012. "I've been meeting people my age who grew up watching TNG with their parents who are now watching it with their own children. I love that The Next Generation is being watched by... the next generation."
Offscreen, Wheaton has become something of an ambassador for the franchise, hosting the popular aftershow The Ready Room. As for Wesley, he unexpectedly popped back up in two different spinoffs: Picard and, appropriately enough, Prodigy.
Outside of Star Trek, he is still best known for his lead role in the classic Stephen King adaptation Stand by Me (1986). In more recent years, however, he found a new generation of fans by playing a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory.
The Burbank native is also a prolific voice actor and audiobook narrator, earning acclaim for recordings of novels like Ready Player One. He has largely retired from on-camera acting.
Wheaton and his wife, Anne Prince, have been married since 1999.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
