Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and aired it in 1977 to a record-breaking audience of 130 million viewers. In the United States, the book and miniseries raised the public awareness of black American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family history.
Amber Nicole Benson is an American actress, singer, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has also directed, produced and starred in her own films Chance (2002) and Lovers, Liars & Lunatics (2006). She also co-directed the film Drones with fellow Buffy cast member Adam Busch. Benson also starred as a waitress in the horror movie The Killing Jar.
Alexandrea Borstein is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. Borstein voices Lois Griffin on the animated comedy television series Family Guy (1999–present), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role. She gained acclaim for starring as Susie Myerson in the comedy-drama series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–present), which has earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a 1976 novel written by Alex Haley. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, transported to North America; following his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States down to Haley. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to a cultural sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including twenty-two weeks at number one. The last seven chapters of the novel were later adapted in the form of a second miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations (1979). It stimulated interest in African American genealogy and an appreciation for African-American history.
Bessie Lillian Carter was the mother of the 39th president of the United States Jimmy Carter. She was also known for her contributions to nursing in her home state of Georgia and as a Peace Corps volunteer in India as well as writing two books during the Carter presidency.
Anne Rivers Siddons was an American novelist who wrote stories set in the southern United States.
Nicole Ari Parker Kodjoe is an American actress and model. She made her screen debut with a leading role in the critically acclaimed independent film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995) and went on to appear in Boogie Nights (1997), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Tananarive Priscilla Due is an American author and educator. Due won the American Book Award for her novel The Living Blood. She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black horror. Due teaches a course at UCLA called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic", which focuses on the Jordan Peele film Get Out.
Michael Jan Friedman is a New York City born American author of nearly sixty books of fiction and nonfiction, more than half of which are in licensed tie-in products of the Star Trek franchise. Ten of his titles have appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list. Friedman has also written for network and cable television, radio, more than 150 comic books, most of them for DC Comics.
Anika Noni Rose is an American actress and singer. She is best known for voicing Tiana, Disney's first African-American movie protagonist, as seen in The Princess and the Frog (2009). She was named a Disney Legend in 2011.
Mary Louise Kelly is a West German-born American broadcaster and author. She anchors the daily news show All Things Considered on National Public Radio (NPR), and previously covered national security at the network. Prior to NPR she reported for CNN and the BBC in London. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Atlantic, and other publications. Her first novel, Anonymous Sources, was published in 2013; her second, The Bullet, in 2015.
The Camel Club is a group of fictional characters created by American novelist David Baldacci. They are the protagonists of five of his novels: The Camel Club, The Collectors, Stone Cold, Divine Justice, and Hell's Corner. The original members are Oliver Stone, Reuben Rhodes, Caleb Shaw, and Milton Farb. The four are political watch-dogs, who are always looking for conspiracies within the government.
Sharon Carter Rogers is the pseudonym for an award-winning thriller novelist active in the Christian suspense genre of books. She is author of the critically acclaimed thrillers, Sinner, Unpretty, and Drift.
Mercedes Helnwein is an artist, writer and filmmaker. She was born in Vienna, Austria.
Ann Wood Waldron was an American author who initially focused on writing for children and young adults, then turned to biographies of authors from the South, and ultimately shifted in her late seventies to writing murder mysteries set at Princeton University.
Rebecca Ann Loebe is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. She has performed and toured with such recording artists as Shawn Colvin, The Civil Wars, Gregory Alan Isakov, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Ellis Paul amongst others. In 2011 she made her international broadcast television debut on The Voice . In addition to being a solo singer she is a founding member of Austin-based band Nobody's Girl.
Amy Elizabeth Greene is an American novelist. Her debut novel, Bloodroot, was a national bestseller. Her second novel, Long Man, was published in March 2014. She is also a contributor to TheNew York Times among other publications.
Celestine Sibley was a famous American newspaper reporter, syndicated columnist, and novelist in Atlanta, Georgia, for nearly sixty years.
Star is an American musical drama television series created by Lee Daniels and Tom Donaghy for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It revolves around three talented young singers who navigate the music business on their road to success and stars Jude Demorest, Brittany O'Grady and Ryan Destiny. The series, which is set in Atlanta, consists of original music, along with musical fantasy sequences, as dreams of the future. Queen Latifah, Benjamin Bratt, Amiyah Scott and Quincy Brown co-star.
Lisa Drew is a retired editor who held top editorial positions at Doubleday, William Morrow and Company, and Scribner. Drew was an editor for Pulitzer Prize-winning Roots: The Saga of an American Family as well as numerous books by the Bush family. Other notable authors she edited include Helen Thomas, Nathan Miller, John E. Douglas, Bruce Henderson, Christine Brennan, and Geraldine Ferraro. At Scribner, Drew created her own imprint, A Lisa Drew Book.
Jan. 13, 2010 article "Good Fortune -- SCHS Grad and Harvard Freshman Releases Debut Novel" by Michael Boylan in The Triangle Tribune: http://triangletribune.com/index
