Join us for an intimate and inspiring fireside conversation with celebrated actress, author, and trailblazer Denise Nicholas, as she reflects on her remarkable life, groundbreaking career, and literary journey, with special emphasis on her memoir, Finding Home.

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From her pioneering roles in the groundbreaking television series Room 222 and In the Heat of the Night to her memorable performances on the silver screen, including Let’s Do It Again, Denise Nicholas has spent decades captivating audiences while helping redefine the representation of Black women in American entertainment.

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Moderated by Tayleur Crenshaw, this engaging conversation will explore the woman beyond the screen—her personal experiences, creative evolution, defining moments, and the people and places that shaped her extraordinary journey.

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At the heart of the discussion is Finding Home, a deeply personal memoir that invites readers into Nicholas’s world of self-discovery, identity, belonging, and reflection. Through candid storytelling, she shares the experiences and relationships that influenced her life, offering an intimate perspective on what it means to find one’s voice, embrace one’s history, and ultimately discover a sense of home.

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More than a conversation about an extraordinary career, this fireside chat is a celebration of storytelling, personal discovery, and the enduring power of sharing our lived experiences.

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An unforgettable afternoon honoring the stories we live, the legacies we create, and the journeys that lead us home.

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About the Author

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Denise Nicholas was born in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan, later graduating from the University of Southern California. As an actress, Ms. Nicholas has been applauded for her portrayals of complex, resilient women on film, television and the stage, most memorably for her ground-breaking, starring role as high school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama, “Room 222” and for her co-starring role as Councilwoman Harriet DeLong on the drama series, “In the Heat of the Night” opposite the late Carroll O’ Connor.

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Between those two long running series, Nicholas guest starred on shows as varied as “A Different World,” “Flip,” “Amen,” “227”, “Magnum P.I.,“ “The Sophisticated Gents,” and “My Wife and Kids,” to name a few. Along the way, she has garnered three Golden Globe nominations and won three NAACP Image Awards. Nicholas is the recipient of two Los Angeles Emmy Awards for co-producing and performing in the PBS Special, “Voices of My People: in Celebration of Black Poetry.”

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At the end of the “Heat of the Night” run, Denise, having written 6 episodes for that series under the mentorship of Carroll O’Connor, decided to devote her creative life to writing, the work she had always longed to do. She found her way to “White Oleander” author Janet Fitch’s Journeyman’s Workshop and out of that nose-to-the-grindstone-experience came her novel, “Freshwater Road.” Denise’s autobiographical debut novel 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.

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About the Speaker

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Hailing from Westchester, New York, Tayleur Crenshaw is an event producer, Howard University alumna, poet, and founder of Gold Beams.

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She began her career working in marketing at AARP, Gap, and Banana Republic. Tayleur taught spoken word at the Oakland School for the Arts, worked on the event production teams at the Oakland Museum of California and the Ruth Williams Opera House, and is currently a Live Events Producer at KQED.

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