A black lead actress, onscreen from the '70s, she is sometimes billed Denise Nicholas-Hill. She worked with the Free Southern Theater and the Negro Ensemble Company and had a couple of TV guest shots before landing the role of Liz McIntire, a high school guidance counselor, in the TV series Room 222. She has a no-nonsense, independent quality as an actress. In the '70s she appeared in a number of films, most of them with predominantly black casts. In 1971 she wrote The Denise Nicholas Beauty Book. She formed her own production company, Masai Productions. She has done much work on TV, including a regular role on the series Baby I'm Back. She was married to director Gilbert Moses and later to singer Bill Withers. ~ Rovi