LeVar Burton's 'Jeopardy!' Dream Not Coming True Led to 'Bliss' Working with His Daughter on 'Picard'

The iconic actor returns to the Star Trek universe on Picard, once again sans VISOR — alongside real-life (and onscreen) daughter Mica

LeVar Burton learned a profound lesson last year when he lost out on his dream of being named the new permanent host of Jeopardy!

Although he was eager to succeed the late, legendary Alex Trebek (fans of the frequent guest host expressed their support by submitting a petition containing hundreds of thousands of signatures), Burton, 66, remains philosophical about the missed opportunity.

"Your failures are more important than your successes because you learn more from them," he tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "Everything happens for a reason, and it's all purposeful and perfect. So where's the perfection in 'I didn't get what I wanted'? I discovered that [it] wasn't supposed to be mine, but the process that I went through led me to exactly where I needed to be."

Initially, the show's executive producer Mike Richards was announced as the new host. Three weeks later, Richards resigned after sexist and other disparaging comments he made on a podcast several years ago surfaced, and history-making former contestant Ken Jennings and The Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik replaced him as rotating permanent hosts.

Related:Patrick Stewart Admits He Initially 'Vetoed' a Star Trek: The Next Generation Reunion on Picard

Had Burton landed the demanding game-show gig, the actor realizes he might not be in the place of "absolute bliss" that he's in today: reprising one of his most beloved roles, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Geordi La Forge, for the third and final season of Star Trek: Picard on Paramount+.

A big part of the thrill of returning to the franchise for the first time since Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 is the chance to work alongside his daughter Mica. The 28-year-old actress (her mom is Burton's wife of 30 years, Hollywood makeup artist Stephanie Cozart Burton) was cast to play one of Geordi's daughters.

Also, Picard reunites Burton with his Star Trek: The Next Generation castmates Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis. More than friends, the original crew from the '80s and '90s sci-fi hit are like family — and that's not a platitude.

"Mica's grown up with them all," Burton says, pointing out that Spiner served as best man at his 1992 wedding, while Dorn, Frakes and Stewart were groomsmen. "We have spent so much of our lives with each other," he says.

Being back on-set, he adds, "was effortless — like the old days."

Related:LeVar Burton Reflects on His Roots — and America's Path Forward: 'The Work Is Not Done'

Before he launched into space onscreen, Burton became a star, figuratively speaking, with his Emmy-nominated performance as the young Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots.

"The entire nation got an education," says the actor, who was cast when he was still in his teens in one of the first TV productions to depict the horrors of slavery. He helped to further educate the masses on the PBS children's program Reading Rainbow, which he hosted from 1983 to 2006.

Between Rainbow and Next Generation, on which he appeared from 1987 to 1994, he remained a household name and face, but his family was his priority.

"My wife, she taught me what love looks like, sounds like, tastes like, smells like," says the father of two. (He has a son, Eian, born in 1980 from a previous relationship.) "Then when Mica came, I was transitioning from making my living as an actor to making my living as a director. And in those early days, I was gone all the time."

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For Mica, working with her father and her "aunts and uncles" has been a "whirlwind," she says. "My agent told me that I was cast, and my dad didn't know, so I got to tell him."

On her first day, she recalls, "my dad drove me to work, and it was just my family on-set, my Star Trek family." But despite her joy over joining the series' sci-fi universe, Mica admits she wasn't always a Trekkie: "I didn't want to be 'LeVar Burton's daughter.' I wanted to be myself, my own person. And so I purposefully was anti-Star Trek for a long time."

Before Burton ever stepped onto the starship Enterprise, his talent and his mere presence on TV were game changers at a time when high-profile roles and opportunities for Black men were scarce. He's pleased with the progress the industry has made when it comes to diversity.

"We're in a different business now," says Burton, who, in addition to acting, has directed episodes of Star Trek, Charmed and JAG. "There are so many more people of color and women and other marginalized groups that are in front of [the camera] and behind the scenes. Are we finished? Not even close, but we have made significant strides, real strides."

The former Reading Rainbow host recently partnered with the educational games company Osmo to "do what I've always done — using the prevailing technology to give children a tool that will help them crack the code."

He's also an executive producer of the 2023 documentary The Right to Read, which, he explains, "frames early childhood literacy as a civil rights issue. That's what Reading Rainbow was all about: fostering a love of the written word. I'm focusing my attention now on giving kids the tools they need to learn how to read."

Between that bold mission and the one he's embarked on with his daughter and closest friends on Picard, Burton says life is just as it should be: "I'm ecstatic that things have worked out the way they have."

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