Walter Koenig was born in Chicago in 1936 and almost immediately moved to Europe.  He soon became sick of the continental lifestyle, however, and forced his family to return to the United States so that he could become a native Yankees fan.  Walter's parents, immigrants from the Soviet Union, maintained an interest in the politics of their former homeland.  The FBI, in turn, maintained an interest in his parents.

Walter Koenig has been acting since the age of 7, but to hear him talk you wouldn't know it.  His first stage performance as Professor Hans Strausmann earned him rave reviews and a standing ovation.  It was a surprise to everyone — especially the director — who had cast Walter merely to distract him from his obsession with watching the local girls turning cartwheels in their summer dresses.  Walter returned to starring roles on stage in high school, and was stunned by his first fan club made up of 12 year old girls.

 Distracting himself by earning a degree in psychology, Walter was finally convinced by a professor to attend New York's Neighborhood Playhouse where his acting talent earned him a scholarship.  After moving to L.A., his first acting job was on the pilot episode of "General Hospital." He went on to play dozens of teenage thugs and juvenile delinquents on television before landing the role of the squeaky-clean Chekov on Star Trek’s Original Series.  He was stunned yet again by a fan club full of 12 year old girls which never left him throughout all his years of acting, even when he portrayed the insurmountably evil Bester on "Babylon 5."  Walter continues to act on stage, television and film.  Preferring quirky roles in independent projects, among other things he has played Tom Sawyer opposite Mark Lenard's Huck Finn, an astronaut trapped on the moon, a televangelist, and a bent-on-revenge research lab director.

All of these acting roles, of course, are merely Walter's well-disguised plan to get invited to conventions so that he can secretly feed his long-time obsession with collecting.  He has amassed a plethora of buttons, Big Little Comics, comic books, action figures, and — of course — everything ever made with Chekov or Bester’s image on it.  His long-suffering wife finally built a second floor on their house and banished Walter’s collections to it.

Walter, in truth, will go to no end to add to his collections....even to the point of adding the iconic character of "Enik" to the "Land of the Lost" in one of his many television scripts.  (He was rewarded with a new Enik action figure this year.)  Writing is Walter’s true passion and, in addition to his teleplays, he has penned several one act plays, four books and two screenplays.  His latest screenplay, "InAlienable," debuted last year as the first feature film to premiere on the internet and has been picked up for distribution by Shoreline Entertainment; the novelization is being considered by several publishers.  Alice and the Actor Robot, a novel he wrote after "Star Trek" was cancelled, has been published twice and was turned into an audio drama that was recorded this year by "Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air."  It will be available at B. Dalton and Borders bookstores in December.

An impossible man to live with when he's bored (just ask his wife), Walter has preserved his marriage by teaching courses on acting and directing and by directing stage productions when he wasn't busy acting or writing.  He has also supported several Native American schools and last year he traveled to Thailand to visit with Karen refugees of the military junta in Burma.  While in Thailand he discovered unbelievable inhumane conditions and humidity so intense that fish walk on land.  Since his return, Walter has been energetically speaking to alert people to the ethnic cleansing situation in Burma and to the imprisonment of the rightful president there.

People listening to Walter speak will find him an intelligent, honest, insightful man with a dry sense of humor and a self-deprecating ego.  He is still surprised that anyone would want to hear him talk about his 48 year career — or anything else, for that matter.  Ask him about any of his current projects or his comic collection, however, and security will have to drag him out at the end of his time allotment. Walter will also be happy to judge any cartwheel contest that presents itself, but please don't ask him to eat any olives or walking fish.

— Patty Wright