Community: 10 Best Guest Stars

LeVar Burton is one of a number of guest stars so brilliant they are simply playing themselves on the show. He began his career in 1977 when he played the teenage Kunta Kinte in the miniseries Roots.

From this, he went on to host and produce the show Reading Rainbow in 1983, a half-hour PBS kids show about reading. It ran for 23 seasons, ending in 2006. Over its run, it won 26 Emmys, 12 for Burton as host and producer.

During the run of Rainbow, Burton was also cast in possibly his most famous role as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He played this role from 1986 to 1994, reprising the part in the follow-up movies beginning in 1994 with Star Trek: Generations and ending in 2002 with Star Trek: Nemesis.

He played himself in 2 episodes of Community. In season 2 episode 16, he is brought in by Pierce to freak out Troy, who is a massive fan of Burton, but is worried about disappointing him and, as such, cannot speak to him while he is there.

He comes back in season 5 when Troy is due to set sail around the world on Pierce's yacht and it is revealed that he will be travelling with Burton. Of course, at this point, Troy had been cloned and can talk to Burton freely, which he is shown to do in the episode's ending gag.