Tina Andrews

Tina Andrews is an American actress, television producer, screenwriter, author and playwright. She played Valerie Grant in the series Days of Our Lives from 1975 until 1977.

Andrews also wrote the TV miniseries Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, which was the first time that the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings had been explored on TV. In 2001, Andrews was the first African American to win the Writers Guild of America award for Original Long Form, for her script for this miniseries. in Chicago, Illinois. Andrews attended Harlan Community Academy High School, where she participated in Modern Dance, Student Council and Drama Club. After graduating high school in 1969, Andrews studied at New York University, majoring in Drama.

Career Acting Andrews spent many years acting in such series as Days of Our Lives, where she originated the role of Valerie Grant from 1975 to 1977. Her character was part of the first interracial romance shown on daytime television. About 10 years later, Craig Anderson started working with Andrews on developing it as a script for TV.

Andrews worked on the Hemings project for nearly 16 years. Craig Anderson had optioned the rights to historian Fawn McKay Brodie's 1974 biography of Jefferson, which had explored the possibility of the long-rumored relationship with Hemings. She concluded that they did have a liaison and children. While Andrews was working on her script, a DNA study in 1998 demonstrated a match between the male lines of descendants of Hemings and Jefferson, which shifted the consensus of major historians of Jefferson, such as Joseph Ellis. He announced that he believed that Jefferson had a long-term relationship with Hemings and fathered all her children. Andrews completed her script, and the team took it to production.

Andrews also wrote the CBS miniseries 'Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis', and the screenplay for the movie Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998). In 2019, Andrews joined other WGA writers in firing their agents as part of the WGA's stand against the ATA and the practice of packaging.

Literary works Following the production of the miniseries in 2000, Andrews published the non-fiction book Sally Hemings: An American Scandal: The Struggle to Tell the Controversial Truth (2001). It recounts her work over 16 years to bring Hemings' story to a larger audience. The book was published by Malibu Press. She wrote an essay for The First Time I Got Paid for It: Writers Tales from the Hollywood Trenches (2002). Andrews novel The Hollywood Dolls (2009) was published by Malibu Press. An updated edition of the book entitled Queen Charlotte Sophia: A Royal Affair was acquired for publication by Jacaranda Books in 2023.

Awards and nominations In 1999, Andrews received a nomination at the Acapulco Black Film Festival for Best Screenplay for the 1998 movie Why Do Fools Fall in Love. In 2001, Andrews was the first African American to win the Writers Guild of America award for Original Long Form for her script for the 2000 miniseries Sally Hemings: An American Scandal. and the Literary Award of Excellence from the Memphis Black Writers Conference. In 2003, Andrews won the MIB/Prism Filmmaker Image Award, and she received a proclamation from the City Council of New York that year.