Brent Jay Spiner (born February 2, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the android Data on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four subsequent films. In 2019, he reprised the role for Star Trek: Picard. In 1997, he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact, and was nominated in the same category for portraying Dr. Brackish Okun in Independence Day, a role he reprised in Independence Day: Resurgence. Spiner has also enjoyed a career in the theater and as a musician. Brent Jay Spiner was born on February 2, 1949, in Houston, to Sylvia (Schwartz) and Jack Spiner, who owned a furniture store. At age 29, Jack Spiner died of kidney failure when his son was ten months old. After his father's death, Spiner was adopted by his mother's second husband, Sol Mintz, whose surname he used between 1955 and 1975. Spiner attended Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas. He became active on the Bellaire speech team, winning the national championship in dramatic interpretation. He attended the University of Houston, where he performed in local theater. In 1968, Spiner worked as a performer at Six Flags Astroworld, first as a gunfighter and later in Dr. Featherflowers Medicine Show with his friend Trey Wilson. Both performers alternated as Dr. Featherflowers. Spiner also performed the role in the 1968 TV special The Pied Piper of Astroworld. Spiner moved to New York City in the early 1970s,  where he became a stage actor, performing in several Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including The Three Musketeers and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. Spiner (as Brent Mintz) appeared as an imposter on a 1972 episode of To Tell the Truth. He had a brief non-speaking role in the film Stardust Memories, credited as "Fan in Lobby", the one with a Polaroid. He can also be seen as a passenger on the train full of misfits that the Allen character is trapped on in one of the films-within-the-film. In 1987, Spiner started portraying the android Starfleet officer Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, which spanned seven seasons and four feature films. As a main character, he appeared in all but one of the series' 178 episodes. He reprised his role in the spin-off films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). Although billed as the final Trek movie for the TNG cast, the ambiguous ending of Star Trek: Nemesis suggested a possible avenue for the return of Data. However, Spiner opined that he was too old to continue playing the part, as Data does not age. He played Lore, the android brother of Data, in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and another brother of his, B-4, in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).