Lou Diamond Phillips, who guest stars as a CIA agent on the current "Quantum Leap" reboot, was in his late 20s when the original series was airing. That was prime time for the young actor, who'd just appeared in "La Bamba" and "Stand and Deliver," and was between "Young Guns" films.

"I was a fan of the show. But not to 'X-Files' devotee level. I guess there was always something a little more interesting going on," Phillips, now 61, says with a laugh. He's on a Zoom call from New York, where snow flurries are visible outside his window.

Phillips did eventually work with original "Quantum Leap" star Scott Bakula, "a fantastic guy," on the "NCIS: Las Vegas" series. And he was thrilled to join the current "Quantum Leap" incarnation starring Raymond Lee, who previously appeared in a three-episode arc on "Prodigal Son," a crime drama featuring Phillips in a lead role. The "Quantum Leap" midseason finale featuring Phillips is  streaming on Peacock.

"Not to be too opportunistic, but I think we've taken ‘quantum leaps' into the future when we can have an Asian American be the lead of a show that isn't about shogun or something," Phillips says. "Supporting somebody like Raymond and a lot of the other people who were representative in that cast, for me, it's always been about, 'OK, I knocked down the door, but now I'm keeping my foot in it so people can get in behind me.'"

That sense of duty has fueled Phillips, who grew up in Corpus Christi, from the beginning. He's a Filipino American actor who is part Cherokee, and he's played Mexican American characters in "La Bamba," "Stand and Deliver" and "Young Guns."

That complex diversity has continued throughout his career. He portrayed Chilean miner Luis "Don Lucho" Urzúa in "The 33" and Henry Standing Bear, a member of the Cheyenne Nation, throughout six seasons of "Longmire."

He earned a Tony nomination for "The King & I" in 1996 and reprised the role in 2014 in Australia. He starred as King Arthur in a national tour of "Camelot." Earlier this year, he appeared in the key role of The Engineer ("amazing and frightening") in "Miss Saigon" at Casa Manana in Fort Worth.

Phillips graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a bachelor of fine arts in drama and says he is happy to have "kept my Texas roots strong." In October, he returned for a weeklong residency in the College of Liberal Arts, sharing insight with film, theater and TV students.

"Some of us have been waving the diversity torch for so long. I'm proud that I can be one of those messengers on a number of levels," Phillips says. "Now we are seeing so many more communities represented, a level of authenticity that wasn't there before and an open-mindedness to casting and to stories that are either indigenous or authentic."

Phillips is currently developing a few miniseries ideas and is attached to some independent film projects. He'd also like to return to Broadway. That doesn't leave much time to look back. But when he does, it's with the same sense of duty that made him an '80s icon.

"Back when I made movies like 'La Bamba' and 'Stand and Deliver,' they were anomalies. They were not par for the course. They were tiny, little independent films," Phillips says. "We had no idea they would blow up the way they did or that people would still be watching them 30 years later. I was just a young actor trying to get some jobs and do some good work. It was a number of years later when I realized, 'My goodness, I've been given a task. I've been given a mission, and that is to represent.'"