Nichelle Nichols was an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series, and its film sequels. Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura was ground-breaking for African American actresses on American television.

Grace Dell Nichols was born the third of six children on December 28, 1932, in Robbins, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, to Samuel Earl Nichols, a factory worker who was elected both town mayor of Robbins in 1929.

Nichols’ break came in an appearance in Kicks and Co., Oscar Brown’s highly touted but ill-fated 1961 musical. In a thinly veiled satire of Playboy magazine, she played Hazel Sharpe, a voluptuous campus queen who was being tempted by the devil and Orgy Magazine to become “Orgy Maiden of the Month”.

Why did Nichelle Nichols change her name?

Nichols was born Grace Dell Nichols, but she didn’t care for her name. “I wasn’t satisfied with it, so I went to my mother and father and told them, and they changed it.”

They offered her Nichelle (meaning Victorious Maiden) and she was happy with that. Nichols’s memory is not what it once was. Nor is her hearing.

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