Donna Denise Nicholas (born July 12, 1944) is an American retired actress, author, and social activist who was involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She is known primarily for her roles as high-school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama series Room 222 and Councilwoman Harriet DeLong on the NBC/CBS drama series In the Heat of the Night.
Nicholas began her television acting career in 1968, with an episode of It Takes a Thief. Nicholas had three consecutive (1970–1972) Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Drama TV Series, for her role as Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama series Room 222.
Following Room 222 (1969–1974), she won two Image Awards in 1976 for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, for her role as Beth Foster in Let’s Do It Again (1975). Nicholas also played Olivia Ellis on Baby… I’m Back!, a sitcom that aired on CBS in 1978.
Nicholas wrote the song “Can We Pretend,” which her then-husband Bill Withers recorded on his 1974 album +’Justments. She later appeared as Harriet DeLong in the cast of NBC/CBS’ In the Heat of the Night (1989–1995).
Nicholas wrote six episodes of the series, beginning her second career as a writer. When that show was cancelled, she enrolled in the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, eventually finding her way to the Journeymen’s Writing Workshop under the tutelage of author Janet Fitch. She worked with Fitch for five years. Nicholas also attended the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Workshop, and the Natalie Goldberg Workshop, in Taos, New Mexico.
Her first novel, Freshwater Road, was published by Agate Publishing, in August 2005. it received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was selected as one of the best books of 2005 by The Washington Post, The Detroit Free Press, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune. The novel won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for debut fiction in 2006, as well as the American Library Association’s Black Caucus Award for debut fiction the same year. Freshwater Road was reprinted by Pocket Books. Brown University commissioned Nicholas to write a staged adaptation of Freshwater Road, which was presented in May 2008. –Wikipedia
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Actor | Long Time Since Yesterday | 1985-86 Season |