Denise Nicholas to Receive 2012 Integrity Award at 19th Annual Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival Gala, 3/22

Writer-actress-producer Denise Nicholas, author of the award-winning novel Freshwater Road, and star of Room 222 and In the Heat of the Night, will receive the Integrity Award from the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival, announced Adilah Barnes, co-founder of the non-profit organization which provides  venues for multicultural and multidiscipline solo artists.

The LAWTF Integrity Award is bestowed annually upon an artist who has brought credibility and dignity to her work. Nicholas will accept the 2012 Award at LAWTF's 19^th annual "A Night Divine" Gala on Thursday, March 22 at The Electric Lodge, Venice, CA. Ted Lange and Hattie Winston are co-hosts. For information on the LAWTF gala, please visit: www.lawtf.com or call 818.760.0408. 

Nicholas comments:  "Receiving the LAWTF's l 2012 Integrity Award provides me the opportunity to salute this incredible Los Angeles theatre organization and the excellent work they have done over the past 19 years. I am honored to join previous Award recipients L. Scott Caldwell, LorEtta Devine, Dawnn Lewis, Jude Narita, ReGina Taylor, Lorraine Toussaint, Carmen Zapata and Freda Payne."

Denise Nicholas is best known for her role of Harriet DeLong on the NBC/CBS drama In the Heat of the Night, to which she also contributed as a writer. She also played the role of Liz McIntyre on the ABC series Room 222for several seasons, and received three Golden Globe Award nominations for her portrayal. She also appeared regularly on the The Cosby Show, A Different World, and Living Single, among others, and starred in the CBS comedy series Baby I'm Back opposite Desmond Wilson. Her feature film credits include Let's Do It Again (with Bill Cosby), A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad, all directed by Sydney Poitier. She also appeared inCapricorn One, Blacula, and Marvin and Tige. 

Nicholas appeared as Dr. Judith Kaufman in Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter for the Los Angeles Theatre Works series "The Play's The Thing" on National Public Radio, has performed at the Negro Ensemble Company and the New Federal Theatre in New York, the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey, and The Free Southern Theatre in Mississippi and Louisiana, and she played Rosa Parks in her own play Buses at the University of Southern California. She received two L.A. Emmy Awards for the KCET-PBS special "Voices of Our People," a celebration of African-American poetry; and five NAACP Awards. In 1995, Harvard University's Harvard Foundation cited her as Cultural Artist of the Year for her contributions to American performing arts and intercultural relations.