Denise Nicholas actress and author in conversation with Doug Seibold

Denise Nicholas is a writer and actress who has starred in numerous films and TV shows over the past 55 years, including Room 222, for which she earned three Golden Globe nominations, and In the Heat of the Night, for which she also wrote several episodes. She is the author of Freshwater Road (Agate Bolden, 2005). She lives in Los Angeles.

In Finding Home, Nicholas explores her six-decade journey through TV and film stardom, the real stories behind her marriage to Bill Withers, her other two marriages and her subsequent romantic life, and how she reinvented her creative life to become a celebrated novelist (Freshwater Road, Agate, 9781572841956). Through her powerful storytelling, Nicholas not only chronicles her own remarkable life but also creates an indelible narrative of what it means to live, work, and succeed as a Black woman in America over the past half-century.

Doug Seibold, president of Agate, has worked for 30 years in trade, educational, and nonprofit publishing and media. From 1999 to 2002, he was founding editorial director of UNext, which created online schools in partnership with universities such as Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. He founded Agate in 2003, started Agate Development in 2005, acquired Surrey Books in 2006, and created the Agate Digital and Midway Books imprints in 2012.