‘Star Trek’s’ Michael Dorn Reads to Children on KCET’s ‘Storytime’

The face is usually an actor’s calling card. Not so for Michael Dorn.

During his first season as the Klingon Lt. Worf on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” he’d walk out on stage without his makeup and a producer or director would ask him who he was. The cast didn’t recognize him either; he’d put on elaborate prosthetics before they got there and took them off long after they leave.

“The anonymity is great. And I like the effect it has on people when I tell them who I am,” he says. “But there’s that 10% of the actor that would love to be recognized.”

Occasionally a fan will recognize him, but not from his face--from his deep baritone voice. “They hear the voice and say, ‘Do I know you? Who are you?’ And when I tell them, they’re floored,” he says.

Dorn most recently exercised those vocal cords on KCET’s children’s show “Storytime.” He read “The Little Red Hen” and “Company’s Coming”--a story about aliens who show up for dinner--for the episode Sunday at 7 p.m.

“Anything that has to do with kids is for me,” he says. “Children are our hope for the future and our country seems to neglect that.”

Dorn grew up in Pasadena and went to Pasadena City College to study psychology. Too boring. So he tried radio and television producing. He had no intention of being on-air, but college stations are small places where everyone does a little bit of everything. When he got in front of the camera, his peers and advisers told him to stay there.

After he lucked into getting an agent and then landed his first supporting role on “CHiPs,” he finally said, “I think I’m supposed to be in this business.”

His next role will be a little more down to Earth: an ex-football player and coach on a new sitcom, “Getting By.” “It’s not Worf,” he says. “That’s the best part.”