Denise Nicholas facts for kids

Denise Donna Nicholas (born July 12, 1944) is an American actress. She is well-known for her roles as Liz McIntyre, a high school guidance counselor, in the ABC show Room 222. She also played Councilwoman Harriet DeLong in the NBC/CBS drama series In the Heat of the Night.

About Denise Nicholas

Her Early Life and Schooling

Denise Nicholas was born in Detroit. She spent her early years there. Later, she moved to Milan, Michigan, a small town near Ann Arbor, after her mother remarried. When she was 16, she was featured on the cover of Jet magazine in August 1960. The magazine highlighted her as a promising future school teacher. She finished high school in Milan in 1961. Denise is the middle child, with an older brother named Otto and a younger sister.

She first attended the University of Michigan to study law. However, she changed her focus to Latin-American politics, Spanish, and English. She later moved to New York City and worked for an advertising company. Denise then went to Tulane University to study Fine Arts. Her first acting experience was in a Spanish play for her language class. She left Tulane to join the Free Southern Theater (FST) during the Civil Rights Movement. She toured the southern United States with the FST for two years. After that, she joined the Negro Ensemble Company in New York. From there, she was chosen for her role as Liz McIntyre in the ABC series Room 222. In 1987, after living in Southern California for some years, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama from the University of Southern California Theater Program.

Her Career in Acting and Writing

Denise Nicholas started her TV acting career in 1968 with an episode of It Takes a Thief. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award three times (1970–1972) for Best Actress in a Drama TV Series for her role in Room 222. After Room 222 ended in 1974, she won two NAACP Image Awards in 1976. These awards were for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for her part as Beth Foster in the movie Let's Do It Again (1975). She also played Olivia Ellis in the sitcom Baby... I'm Back! in 1978.

Denise Nicholas wrote the song "Can We Pretend." Her husband at the time, Bill Withers, recorded it on his 1974 album +'Justments. Later, she played Harriet DeLong in the show In the Heat of the Night from 1989 to 1995. She also wrote six episodes of this series, which started her second career as a writer. After the show finished, she studied writing at the University of Southern California. She also attended several writing workshops.

Her first novel, Freshwater Road, was published in August 2005. It received excellent reviews and was chosen as one of the best books of 2005 by several newspapers. The novel won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award for new fiction in 2006. It also won the American Library Association's Black Caucus Award for new fiction that same year. Freshwater Road was later reprinted. Brown University asked Denise Nicholas to create a stage play based on Freshwater Road, which was performed in May 2008. As of July 2025, Denise Nicholas is finishing her memoir, which is expected to be published in 2025.

Her Personal Life

Denise Nicholas married Gilbert Moses in May 1964 and they divorced in 1967. She later married singer-songwriter Bill Withers on January 17, 1973. They divorced in December 1974. In February 1980, her younger sister Michele Burgen passed away. Denise Nicholas later married CBS sports anchor Jim Hill on Valentine's Day in 1981. They divorced in 1987.

Acting Roles

Films

Television Shows

Theatre Performances

Awards and Nominations