Michaela Jean Burton (born July 8, 1994) is an American actress,

cosplayer Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

and host. She is known for her contributions in the gaming space, having hosted for

Achievement Hunter Achievement Hunter is an American video gaming division of Rooster Teeth Productions. Founded by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo on July 6, 2008, the website is largely based on the achievement mechanic in video games. Since its founding, Achie ...

, The Know, the

Overwatch League The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting lea ...

and voicing a character in '' 100ft Robot Golf''. Burton has been referred to as a "nerd renaissance woman" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and has been noted as one of only a few professional black cosplayers by ''

Essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

''.

Career

Acting

In 2015, Burton portrayed the role of Jules in the film ''

Lazer Team ''Lazer Team'' is a 2015 American Science fiction film, science fiction action comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by Matt Hullum. The first feature film produced by Rooster Teeth, it stars Burnie Burns, Gavin Free, Michael Jones (acto ...

'' (2015). She also briefly appeared in ''

The Eleven Little Roosters ''The Eleven Little Roosters'' is an American spy comedy web series created by Josh Flanagan and co-directed and co-written by Blaine Gibson and Flanagan. It stars Zach Anner, Burnie Burns, Barbara Dunkelman, Gavin Free, Ashley Jenkins, Geoff R ...

'' (2017). She voiced Vahni in '' 100ft Robot Golf'' (2016). Burton is known for her roles in

actual play Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the game ...

RPG web shows such as

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

's ''Destiny & Doom'' (2017) and ''Nights of Eveningstar'' (2020). Burton also guest starred in ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 after ...

'''s second campaign and in ''

L.A. by Night ''L.A. by Night'' is an American actual play web series where the cast plays as vampires using the fifth edition ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' ruleset. It is set Canon (fiction), canonically in the ''World of Darkness'' series after the events of ...

''. Burton will play

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

Alandra La Forge in the third season of '' Star Trek: Picard''.

Cosplay

Burton began cosplaying in high school after attending a convention with a friend. She was commissioned by

Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop ''League of Legends'' and went on t ...

to create ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' cosplay in 2019. She has also received praise for cosplays of characters from ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

''.

Hosting

Burton, who had been a fan of the company since she was a child, joined

Rooster Teeth Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC is an American digital media company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola, and Joel Heyman, Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Warner ...

in 2016 after meeting the founders and other employees. She began as a host in the gaming division

, but later moved to the entertainment news division The Know. She left Rooster Teeth in 2018, stating in 2020 that this was due to racial issues at the company. In 2019, Burton joined the

as a “League Insider”, conducting interviews with the players. She left in 2020. Burton has hosted multiple ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' events for Wizards of the Coast such as ''D&D Live 2019'': ''The Descent'' and ''D&D Live 2021''. Burton began cohosting the web series ''Critter Hug'' in 2020 for

Critical Role Productions Critical Role Productions, LLC is a multimedia production company incorporated in 2015 by the members of the creator-owned streaming show ''Critical Role''. The first two shows from the company, ''Critical Role'' and ''Talks Machina'', originally ...

. She was a speaker at Ubisoft’s monthly Black Game Pros event in 2020. She hosted a cosplay competition at Glitchcon 2020. Burton was a cohost for a

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

anniversary stream in 2020 and multiple Star Trek streams on

Paramount+ Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

in 2021 Burton hosted The PC Gaming Show during

E3 2021 The Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 (E3 2021) was the 26th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entert ...

and during Summer Game Fest 2022.

Personal life

Burton is the daughter of makeup artist Stephanie Cozart-Burton and actor

LeVar Burton Levar Burton Jr. (born February 16, 1957) is an American actor, director, and television host, best known for playing Geordi La Forge in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994). He also played Kunta Kinte in the ABC miniseries ''Root ...

. Burton graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 2016 with a BFA in acting. She is bisexual.

Filmography

Live-action filmography

Voice-over filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Mica 1994 births Living people 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Los Angeles African-American actresses American film actresses American television actresses American video game actresses American voice actresses Bisexual actresses Cosplayers Rooster Teeth people Video game commentators Women in esports University of Michigan alumni LGBT people from California LGBT African Americans 21st-century LGBT people American media personalities