Francesca James (born January 23, 1949) is an American actress, writer, singer, composer, director and producer.

Biography

She grew up in

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, where she began her professional career in the theater at the age of 16. After studying theater at

Carnegie-Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where she worked in theater, and for several years, in

daytime drama A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored b ...

s, including ''

The Secret Storm ''The Secret Storm'' is an American soap opera that the CBS television network transmitted from February 1, 1954, to February 8, 1974. It was created by Roy Winsor, who also created the long-running soap operas ''Search for Tomorrow'' and ''Love ...

'', ''

As the World Turns ''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other s ...

'', '' One Life to Live'' and '' All My Children'' (for which she was awarded a Best Supporting Actress Emmy in 1980). James made an impression playing the character of Marcy Wade on '' One Life to Live'' from 1970 to 1972, and was afterward asked to join the cast of '' All My Children'' as Kitty Shea, a dancer searching for her birth mother. She initially departed that program around its expansion to a full hour to become a singer. She later met

Agnes Nixon Agnes Nixon ( Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas ''One Life to Live'', ''All My Children'', as well as ''Loving'' and its spin-off '' The Ci ...

, the show's creator, and expressed an interest to rejoin the show. Her character Kitty had died, but Nixon created the character of Kelly Cole, an addicted nightclub performer who was also Kitty's long-lost twin sister. She was given a chance to sing and even composed the song "Colored Lights" when another character, Tad Martin, was suffering from addiction. James was written off ''All My Children'' in 1980 and then pursued a career in directing. Her directing credits include ''All My Children'' and '' Loving''. She then moved to Los Angeles as a producer, where she worked on '' General Hospital'', '' Santa Barbara'' and '' Days of Our Lives''. While she was producing ''General Hospital'' in 1994–1995, the show was twice awarded the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Drama Series. In 1995, James returned to New York and ''All My Children'', which earned its second Outstanding Daytime Drama with her as producer. In 1998, James left the production team of ''All My Children'', but stayed with

ABC Daytime ABC Daytime (sometimes shortened to ABC-D or ABCD) is a division responsible for the daytime programming block on the ABC Network and syndicated programming. The block has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows. Histor ...

in a consulting position and as the head of its writer development program for the next year.

Awards and nominations

Daytime Emmy Awards The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (N ...

* win (2005; Best Special Class Series, ''Starting Over'') * win (1998; Best Drama Series, ''All My Children'') * win (1995, 1996; Best Drama Series, ''General Hospital'') * win (1980; Best Supporting Actress, ''All My Children'') * nomination (1997, 1999; Best Drama Series, ''All My Children'') * nomination (1983–1985, 1987; Best Directing, ''All My Children'')

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Francesca 1949 births Actresses from Michigan American soap opera actresses American television actresses American soap opera writers Television producers from California American women television producers Daytime Emmy Award winners Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series winners Living people People from Montebello, California Soap opera producers Screenwriters from California American women television writers Place of birth missing (living people) Women soap opera writers 21st-century American women