John de Lancie

Early life

De Lancie was born Jonathan de Lancie in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1948, the son of John de Lancie, who was principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954 to 1977, and Andrea de Lancie.

Star Trek

De Lancie portrayed Q, a recurring character in several of the Star Trek franchise. Q is one of the few characters appearing in multiple series of the franchise: in 8 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation including the pilot ("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 3 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").

Film

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, Nicolas, Good Advice, Patient 14, The Big Time, Teenius, Pathology, Evolver, Reign Over Me, My Apocalypse, Crank, Crank 2, and You Lucky Dog.

Other television roles

In addition to his roles in Star Trek, de Lancie appeared in many other television series. He was a popular actor on Days of Our Lives as Eugene. He also co-starred in Star Trek writer Michael Piller's creation Legend and had recurring roles in Stargate SG-1 as an NID agent. He has also appeared as Dr. Deroy in three television films of Emergency!. Additionally, de Lancie 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, Mission: Impossible (1980s Revival), and Special Unit 2. De Lancie also had a speaking part in the (Battlestar Galactica) episode, Experiment in Terra.

de Lancie has also voiced characters in several animated series, including Duck Dodgers, The Angry Beavers, Max Steel, Duckman, Invader Zim, and Discord, who appears in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and was actually inspired by Q from Star Trek, as a being who embodies chaos, but redeems himself and is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the series.

Stage

He 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). de Lancie has performed and directed for L.A. Theatre Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Play's the Thing originates. He 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. de Lancie performed Pierre Curie in Alan Alda's play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2001 at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles.

Video games

de Lancie performed the voice of Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, as Trias in Planescape: Torment, and as Dr. Death in Outlaws. He also voiced William Miles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, Alarak in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, and reprised his role as Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game, Star Trek: Borg, and Star Trek: The Game Show.

Writing

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. He was the writer for the DC comic book story The Gift.

Music

de Lancie has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Montreal Symphony. He provided the narration for the world premiere of Lorenzo Palomo's "The Sneeches" (based on the book by Dr. Seuss) with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra. de Lancie was the host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphonies for Youth for four years where he helped conceptualize the student concerts "Don't Educate–Stimulate". In addition, he has written and directed ten symphonic plays which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras. de Lancie was the writer, director and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, 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" on May 18 to May 21.

Documentary

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 that he was taken aback by how disrespectfully national news media portrayed the brony fandom. He resolved to do it the "right way" and, with the help of director Laurent Malaquais and producer Michael Brockhoff, began a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the documentary, now titled Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. The Kickstarter campaign began on May 13, 2012 and by June 10, 2012 had reached a grand total of $322,022, becoming Kickstarter's second highest funded film project of all time.

Personal life

With Marnie Mosiman, de Lancie has two sons named Keegan de Lancie (born October 31, 1984) and Owen de Lancie (born May 16, 1987). He is an atheist.