Howie Seago

Howie Seago is the actor, director, and producer who played Riva in the Star Trek: The Next Generation second season episode  in. Like his character, Seago is deaf.

Born as Howard W. Seago in Tacoma, Washington he joined the National Theatre of the Deaf and acted in various plays around the world including Peter Sellar's "Ajax" and David Byrne's "The Forrest". He also worked as an actor at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna Festival. Today Seago is a well known member of the American Deaf Community and is working as author and teacher.

Seago appeared in episodes of Hunter (1988, with Kavi Raz) and The Equalizer (1990, with Keith Szarabajka) and received international acknowledgements for his part in the German drama Beyond Silence in 1996 which earned several film awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

In 2008 Seago appeared in the short documentary The Deaf Man and portrayed Grandpa Dale in the family movie The Legend of the Mountain Man.