John Sherwood de Lancie, Jr. (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor.
De Lancie's first television role was in Captains and the Kings in 1976. His other television series roles include Eugene Bradford in Days of Our Lives (1982–1986; 1989–1990), Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1 (2001–2002), Donald Margolis in Breaking Bad (2009–2010), Agent Allen Shapiro in Torchwood (2011), the voice of Discord in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (2011–2019), as well as Q in various Star Trek series, beginning with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 and leading up to the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2025.
De Lancie became an outspoken secular activist and was a featured speaker at the 2016 Reason Rally and at CSICon 2019.
De Lancie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 1948, one of two children born to John de Lancie (1921–2002), principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954 to 1977, and Andrea de Lancie (July 3, 1920 – October 18, 2006). His mother was French. His parents met in Paris. He has a sister.
As a child, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and struggled to read throughout his school years. He did not learn to read until he was 12. One of his teachers recommended that his parents encourage him to consider a career as an actor. He began to act around the age of 14, performing in a high school production of William Shakespeare's Henry V. He went on to study acting at Kent State University (he was in attendance during the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970) and won a scholarship to Juilliard. He performed in numerous stage productions, at venues such as the American Shakespeare Festival and the Mark Taper Forum, and established a successful career in film and television.
De Lanie's break out role was of Eugene Bradford on the soap opera Days of our Lives, which De Lanie played in episodes beginning in 1982 until 1990. His on screen partnership with actress Arleen Sorkin was called "TV's Zaniest Couple" by Soap Opera Digest in 1985.
De Lancie portrayed the almost-omnipotent character Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), and in episodes of several subsequent Star Trek series taking place during that era. Q, notable for his chaotic, mischievous personality, is one of the few characters appearing in multiple series of the franchise: eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Encounter at Farpoint", "Hide and Q", "Q Who", "Deja Q", "Qpid", "True Q", "Tapestry", "All Good Things..."), one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Q-Less"), three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager ("Death Wish," "The Q and the Grey," "Q2"), one episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks ("Veritas"), nine episodes of Star Trek: Picard ("The Star Gazer", "Penance", "Assimilation", "Watcher", "Fly Me to the Moon", "Two of One", "Mercy", "Farewell", and "The Last Generation"), and one episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("Wedding Bell Blues"). De Lancie's son Keegan de Lancie appeared with his father as Q Junior in one episode of Star Trek: Voyager ("Q2").
Initially, de Lancie was too busy to audition for the part of Q, but Gene Roddenberry (whom he did not know) arranged a second opportunity. De Lancie recognized that even though Star Trek was only a small part of his career, it opened doors for him. In a 2012 interview, he said that he recalled his original audition, after which Roddenberry approached him, touched him on the shoulder, and said, "You make my writing sound better than it is."
De Lancie also appeared on the television show Stargate SG-1 as the character Colonel Frank Simmons.
De Lancie appeared in the AMC crime series Breaking Bad as Donald Margolis, the father of Jane (played by Krysten Ritter).
De Lancie voiced Antonio Malochio in Interstate '76, Trias in Planescape: Torment, Dr. Death in Outlaws, William Miles in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, Fitz Quadwrangle in Quantum Conundrum, and Q in both the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball game and the mobile game Star Trek Timelines, and portrayed Q in Star Trek: Borg. He further voiced the human emperor in Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars. He also voiced Alarak in StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void and reprised the role for Heroes of the Storm. More recently, he voiced Geist, the leader of the Templars in the XCOM 2 expansion War of the Chosen. He voiced the narrator wizard of Popup Dungeon. He also voiced the Dota 2 hero Ringmaster, released in August 2024.
De Lancie is a former member of the American Shakespeare Festival, the Seattle Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Old Globe (where he performed Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues). He performed and directed for L.A. Theatre Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio where the series The Play's the Thing originated.
In the touring company Star Trek: The Music, De Lancie co-hosted and appeared with Robert Picardo (who portrayed the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager). De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek. He performed Pierre Curie in Alan Alda's play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie in 2001 at the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles. De Lancie hosted the children's concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall during the 2003–04 season; in 2005, he hosted the children's series of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Known for his distinctive speaking style, de Lancie lent his voice to a number of projects. In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, he voiced Discord, a recurring character. Discord was inspired by Q as an omnipotent being who embodies mischief and chaos, but is genuinely good-hearted and is occasionally helpful to the heroes of the show; another connection to Q is that Discord often uses fewer contractions in his vocabulary. Discord is best described as an anti-hero, also similar to Q. Initially, Lauren Faust wanted to cast someone who could impersonate de Lancie, but Hasbro suggested casting de Lancie himself. Ironically, de Lancie has stated in an interview that, in preparation for his role as Discord, he did not draw from his past experience as Q. De Lancie mentioned during a 2013 convention panel that his voice recordings of Discord are slightly sped up and lose their deep bass sound. Nevertheless, fans still praised de Lancie for his performance. According to Jim Miller in The Art of Equestria, de Lancie's sessions are always done by phone, but his first session as Discord was videotaped.
His other animated television roles included The Angry Beavers, Extreme Ghostbusters, Invader Zim, Duck Dodgers, Max Steel, Duckman, Young Justice, and DC Super Hero Girls as Mr. Freeze.
De Lancie co-wrote the Star Trek novel I, Q with Peter David, as well as co-writing the novel Soldier of Light (with Tom Cool). He wrote the DC comic book story The Gift. In 1996, along with Leonard Nimoy and writer-producer Nat Segaloff, de Lancie formed and recorded Alien Voices, a collection of audio dramas based on classic science fiction and fantasy stories, such as The Time Machine and The Lost World.
De Lancie has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia. He provided the narration for the world premiere of Lorenzo Palomo's The Sneetches and Other Stories (based on the book by Dr. Seuss) with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra. He wrote and directed ten symphonic plays, which were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.
De Lancie was the writer, director and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, based loosely on the book of the same name by Thomas Forrest Kelly, which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with the Atlanta Opera performing Puccini's "Tosca" from May 18–21.