Saturn Awards Honoring Nichelle Nichols, Melissa Benoist, Simon Kinberg, and More

The Saturn Awards honor excellence in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror entertainment, and this year's 42nd annual awards have some notable honorees. In the special awards categories, there are plenty of familiar names to comicbook and genre fans.

Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek receives the Lifetime Achievement Award for her pioneering role as Lt. Uhura on the original TV series. The actress has also contributed to "the musical arts" and has presented "tireless support of NASA and space exploration."

Simon Kinberg has his hands in a lot of genre pots. The writer and producer in this calendar year alone so far has written Darth Vader on Star Wars Rebels, and iconic characters like Magneto and Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse. He's worked as a producer on other sci-fi films like Elysium, Chappie, The Martian, and produced Deadpool. He receives the George Pal Memorial Award this year.

Melissa Benoist, meanwhile, wins the Breakthrough Performance Award for her titular role on Supergirl. The Saturn Awards say "she is a positive role model to young kids with her work on the successful series."

Creator and producer of Supernatural Eric Kripke receives the Dan Curtis Legacy Award for production in television, and Salem creator Brannon Braga gets the Special Recognition Award for his work on that show, Cosmos, and three Star Trek series.

The Saturn Awards will be presented in Burbank, CA on June 22, 2016.