TINA ANDREWS is an international, multiple award-winning screenwriter, playwright, author, director, producer, and visual artist who stands as a transformative figure in contemporary storytelling, weaving together threads of history, culture, and personal triumph across stage, screen, and books.  Her body of work is marked by an unwavering commitment to illuminating untold stories, challenging conventions, and celebrating the richness of lived experience.

 

She's currently on a U.K. book tour for Jacaronda Books (distributed by Hachette), that recently published the paperback edition from their hardcover of her historical novel, Queen Charlotte Sophia: A Royal ​Affair (based on her original 2010 novel, Charlotte Sophia: Myth, Madness & The Moor), about Queen Charlotte and court intrigue stemming from her life and marriage to King George III—as well as being of Moorish ancestry. Tina adapted it into a play, as well as for screen, which under her TAO Entertainment Group she will produce with Whoopi Goldberg, who lauded and recommended the book for The View's popular, "...Get Lit" segment. The audiobook of the novel by renowned Recorded Books, was narrated by award-winning actress, Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, The Red King), becoming one of the top 20 audiobooks during its release year. 

 

Tina wrote and executive produced the #1, award-winning CBS miniseries, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson (Emmy-nominated actor, Sam Neill)  and his enslaved mistress, Sally Hemings (Image Award winner, Carmen Ejogo). For the miniseries she won the Writers Guild of America Award for “Outstanding Television Long Form” (the first person of color to win), and an NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding TV Movie, Miniseries or Special.” It was based on her play, The Mistress of Monticello, which Tina originally wrote and directed at the Chicago Dramatists Workshop, before CBS acquired it. She also wrote the nonfiction book, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (The Malibu Press), which won the NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Literary Nonfiction” and the Literary Award of Excellence from the Memphis Writers Conference. Tina was also honored for her contribution to film and television with a Proclamation from the City Council of New York. 

 

A graduate of NYU's famed theatre program, Tina has always loved the stage, even making her professional acting debut on Broadway and National Touring Company of "Hello, Dolly!  Therefore, it's not a surprise that she's become a playwright and theatre director. In fact, she directed the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, and the Tony-nominated Venus in Fur by David Ives at the renowned Guild Hall Theater in East Hampton, NY. Futhermore, she not only directed a new production of her play The Mistress of Monticello at the Hamptons' esteemed Southampton Cultural Center (SCC), but two more of her original plays, Buckingham and Frankie. An SCC Playwright-in-Residence, Tina also starred and directed her original one-woman show, Coretta: Promise to The Dream, where she portrayed Coretta Scott King, whom Tina had the honor of knowing due to a miniseries about her that Tina was developing at CBS.  Tina has also expanded her theatre roots "across The Pond", as an "Associate Artist" at The Playground Theatre in London, where she's developing new work.

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Known as a “historical griot” in film, television, theatre and literature, Tina was also the writer and executive producer of the CBS miniseries, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis; and wrote the Warner Bros. fan favorite classic, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, starring Oscar winner, Halle Berry, about the life of R&B legend and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Frankie Lymon.  Her penchant for music history is also captured in her book on Little Richard (whom she knew), entitled Awop Bop Aloo Mop: Little Richard: A Life of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll...and Religion .  In addition, Tina has an essay in the book, The First Time I Got Paid for It: Writers Tales from the Hollywood Trenches (Grand Central/Hachettte). She's also had essays published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the WGA's Written By, Contents, and Creative Screenwriting magazines.

 

However, before her writing, producing and directing, she was an actor in many television programs and films, including: a stand-out performance in the acclaimed, Conrack (20th Century Fox), starring Oscar winner, Jon Voight; Carny (United Artists) starring another Academy Award winner, Jodie Foster; and her barrier-breaking role as “Valerie Grant” on NBC's Daytime Emmy-winning, Days Of Our Lives where she and co-star, Richard Guthrie, became the first interracial couple in a daytime drama (and yes, there were death threats). But ironically it was her role as Kunta Kinte’s friend "Aurelia" in the historic and Emmy-winning miniseries, ROOTS, that laid the foundation for her to launch a writing career, when she met the man who would become her literary mentor, ROOTS' Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Alex Haley. They would go on to collaborate on the PBS series: Alex Haley’s Great Men of African Descent, which led Tina to her first job as a screenwriter at Columbia Pictures.

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Her well-regarded prowess as a writer (including her extolled script doctoring for major studios) was rewarded with her being named to Variety's coveted "50 To Watch" list. Tina has also been a guest on Oprah, CBS This Morning, PBS stalwart, Frontline, and more. Her guest lectures on writing have been held at universities, such as:  New York University, USC, UCLA, Indiana University and the University of North Carolina, as well as at revered entities such as New York's Schomburg Center and the Monticello.

 

Tina is also very civically engaged with the arts, and has sat or currently sits on the Board of Directors of: the Writers Guild Foundation; the Southampton Cultural Center; London's Playground Theatre; and the Advisory Board for the groundbreaking Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA.

 

Among her current books that she's adapting for stage or screen, Tina's also developing scripted projects under her three-book series publishing deal with Jacaranda Books. Meanwhile, Tina's creative pursuits continue to bridge the gap between art and social discourse, making her a sought-after voice in international literary and entertainment circles.

 

Tina divides her time between New York and London.