Additional to the her Star TrekNichelle played Nana Dawson in the same role. Heroes and Lucinda Winters on The Young and the RestlessFeatured in TV and film movies, including the following: Sharknado 5: Global SwarmingIn 2017. She has filmed several projects in recent years that are still to be released. Last December, she was honored at her final convention appearance by Star Trek fans at Comic-Con.

Nichelle is also known for her singing career and her work with NASA to recruit women and minorities for the space shuttle program.

Nichelle helped Star Trek break barriers. She was the first Black woman to have a continuing co-starring role on television, according to Smithsonian magazine. She also helped create one of the original series’ most talked-about moments.

The actress played the Starship Enterprise’s communication officer in a third season episode, which aired in 1968. This was one year after interracial marriage had been declared legal by the U.S. Supreme Court. William ShatnerCaptain James T. Kirk, the main character in ‘Baby Jane,’ kisses her boss (under orders of evil aliens).

The actress stated to the Associated Press that “the first thing people want is the first interracial kiss and its impact on them.” “And they saw the world differently. They also saw people differently.

Nichelle had almost quit Star Trek after the first season after receiving offers for Broadway roles—her dream. She told NPR that while mulling the decision over, she attended an NAACP fundraiser, where she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The actress told NPR that he told her, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan. That Trekkie is me.

She said, “He complimented my character creation.” I was grateful to him and said, I think, something along the lines: Dr. King. I would love to be there marching beside you. He responded, “No, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you…to march. Your march is a sign of solidarity. “You are expressing what we are fighting for.”

Nichelle stated that she had told civil rights leader she intended to leave Star Trek. He stopped me, and said that he couldn’t do it. For the first time in our lives, the world is seeing us as we ought to be. She also claimed that he had told her this. Star Trek was the only show he and his wife Coretta allow their little children to stay up and watch.