John de Lancie

De Lancie portrayed Q, a recurring character in several of the Star Trek franchise series. He is one of the few characters appearing in multiple series of the franchise. In eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Encounter at Farpoint", "Hide and Q", "Q Who", "Deja Q", "Qpid", "True Q", "Tapestry", "All Good Things ..."), in one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Q-Less"), and in three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager ("Death Wish", "The Q and the Grey", "Q2"). De Lancie's son Keegan de Lancie appeared with his father as Q's son in one episode of Star Trek: Voyager ("Q2").[2]

My popularity is very disproportionate to the amount of times that I actually was on the show. ... It's a double-edged sword. I never partook of the financial rewards of the show in terms of being a regular, I just came on and once a year would do a show.

— John de Lancie

De Lancie was initially too busy to audition for the part of "Q" but Gene Roddenberry, whom he did not know, arranged a second opportunity. De Lancie recognizes that even though Star Trek was only a small part of his career, it opened doors for him.[5]

De Lancie at a convention on July 22, 2006

In addition to his role in Star Trek, de Lancie has appeared in many other television series. He most notably plays the voice of Discord, a recurring character in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Discord was inspired by de Lancie's "Q", as an omnipotent being who embodies chaos but is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the show. He was a popular actor on Days of Our Lives as Eugene Bradford. He also co-starred in Michael Piller's creation, Legend[6] and had recurring roles in Stargate SG-1 as an NID agent.[7]

He has also guest-starred in multiple television series, including Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Charmed, Andromeda, The Unit, MacGyver, Law & Order: LA, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Touched by an Angel, Time Trax, the 1980s revival of Mission: Impossible, and Special Unit 2, along with animated series, including The Angry Beavers, Extreme Ghostbusters, Invader Zim, Duck Dodgers, Max Steel, Duckman, Young Justice,[8][7] and DC Super Hero Girls as Mr. Freeze.[9]

De Lancie's film credits include The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Get Smart, Again!, The Fisher King, Bad Influence, The Onion Field, Taking Care of Business, Fearless, Arcade, Multiplicity, Woman on Top, Good Advice, The Big Time, Pathology, Evolver, Reign Over Me, My Apocalypse, Crank: High Voltage, and You Lucky Dog.[7]

John de Lancie at a performance in 2007

De Lancie has been a member of the American Shakespeare Festival, the Seattle Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Old Globe (where he performed Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues).[8][10][11]

He has performed and directed for Los Angeles Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Play's the Thing originates.[11][12]

De Lancie appeared in Star Trek: The Music, a touring company, with Robert Picardo. De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek.[12] He performed Pierre Curie in Alan Alda's play, Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2001 at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles.[13]

De Lancie voiced the characters of Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, Trias in Planescape: Torment, and Dr. Death in Outlaws, William Miles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, and Q in both the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game and the mobile game Star Trek Timelines, and portrayed Q in Star Trek: Borg. He further voiced human emperor in Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars.[14][12][15] He also voiced Alarak in StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void[16] and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm. More recently he voiced Geist, the leader of the Templars in the XCOM 2 expansion, War of the Chosen.

De Lancie co-wrote the Star Trek novel I, Q with Peter David, as well as co-writing the novel Soldier of Light (with Tom Cool).[17] He wrote the DC comic book story The Gift.[18] With Leonard Nimoy, de Lancie recorded several audio dramas based on classic science-fiction tales, under the label "Alien Voices".[12]

De Lancie has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic,[8] the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra[10][11] and Symphony Nova Scotia.[19] He provided the narration for the world premiere of Lorenzo Palomo's The Sneetches and Other Stories (based on the book by Dr. Seuss) with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra.[20][21] He has written and directed ten symphonic plays which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.[11]

De Lancie was the writer, director and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,[10][11] based loosely on the book of the same name by Thomas Forrest Kelly, which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with the Atlanta Opera performing Puccini's "Tosca" from May 18–21.[2][11]

In September 2019, De Lancie narrated as "Forever of the Stars" in the first ever live performances of Ayreon's Sci-Fi concept album Into the Electric Castle.[22]

De Lancie at the 2012 Summer BronyCon

While on stage at the 2012 Ottawa ComicCon, de Lancie announced that he had made plans to co-produce a documentary about "bronies" (older, usually male teenage and adult fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic). De Lancie stated he was taken aback by how disrespectfully national news media portrayed the brony fandom.[23]

He began a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the documentary, now titled Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony.[24] The Kickstarter campaign began on May 13, 2012, and by June 10, 2012, had reached a total of $322,022, becoming Kickstarter's second-highest funded film project of all time.[24]