Yvette Freeman AS ’72

“I’ll never stop singing, acting, directing and creating. My life is my art,” says Yvette Freeman, AS ’72, known to many of her fans as Nurse Haleh Adams on the NBC series ER. Born in Wilmington, Del., Ms. Freeman says she developed her love of performing from her father, jazz pianist Charles Freeman. Her first major performance after graduation was in the Broadway musical Ain’t Misbehavin’, which utilized her rich singing voice and led to numerous other roles on stage, television and feature films—from Nunsense to NYPD Blue to Children of the Corn III. Her 1997-98 Obie-award winning role as the legendary blues singer Dinah Washington, Dinah Was, played in New York and Los Angeles and resulted in a well-received CD, A Tribute to Dinah Washington. While attending the University, Ms. Freeman says there were many professors who helped her become the artist she is today, but “the person I’ll never forget is Richard Wilson, director of the Upward Bound Program who helped me and so many African American students survive and navigate the University system.”