Denise Nicholas (born Donna Denise Nicholas; July 12, 1944) is an American actress and social activist who was involved in the American Civil Rights Movement. She is known primarily for her role as high school guidance counselor Liz McIntyre on the ABC comedy-drama series Room 222, and for her role as Councilwoman Harriet DeLong on the NBC/CBS drama series In the Heat of the Night.
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.