Kay Alden - Movies, Photos & Biography

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Priscilla Kay Alden was born October 24, 1946 in Hutchinson, Kansas. She got her Bachelor in education in 1967 at Emporia State University in Kansas and a Master's degree in speech and theatre in 1969 from Missouri State University as Alden strived to be a teacher. Eventually becoming a multiple award winning writer for daytime dramas on CBS, it all started with Alden's Communication Arts dissertation for her Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Encouraged by her college advisers to write about dead people because their body of work is complete, Kay instead decided to write about her passion, soap operas, hooked on since age twelve. The dissertation title was "Daytime Serials as Mediators of Social Change" and as part of her research Alden took the bold step to contact - then on-the-rise writer - William J. Bell. Alden was invited to Bell's home on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive and a requested 45 minute interview turned into 2 1/2 hours. Bell took a liking on the student's sharp mind and asked her to turn in sample scripts for his new soap-opera The Young and the Restless (1973) for which he paid the student 50 Dollars. After months of type-writing at home and sending sample scripts back and forth, Bell officially hired Alden as a script-writer and her career started on May 13, 1974. When The Young and The Restless expanded to an hour length in 1980, Alden switched over to the newly created position of breakdown writer on the show, breaking up Bell's weekly and long-term story projections into daily story-arcs, and served as script editor from 1983-1985 and 1986-1987. As the writing staff expanded once again when William J. Bell launched sister-show The Bold and the Beautiful (1987) Alden became associate head writer in 1987. Long since considered Bill Bell's protégé and groomed by the now legendary master of daytime drama story-telling, Alden was officially named co-head writer in 1997 before Bell handed Y&R over to her entirely in summer of 1998. Alden's initial reign as head-writer was well-received by fans and critics alike, creating the extremely popular Glow by Jabot-Kids-storyline amongst many others. A staple of her writing were social impact storylines, e.g. about cancer and homelessness. Backstage struggles with long-time producer Edward Scott had little influence on Alden's work who remained in the position of head-writer (alone or with John F. Smith and Trent Jones respectively) until February 2006 when Lynn Marie Latham took over as Y&R's ratings (as well as all other soap operas and television in general) had suffered drastic declines in viewership for several years. Alden continued to remain onboard as co-head writer but eventually left Y&R after a record 32 years of service in December 2006. Alden was hired by Brian Frons, then-president of ABC Daytime, to consult on its serials 'All My Children (1970)_ and _One Life to Live (1968)_. She left ABC Daytime after declining All My Children's head writer position in Spring 2007 (for undisclosed reasons), and returned to the Bell family fold to work on another CBS Daytime drama. She was hired by Bill Bell's son Bradley Bell in May 2007 to be an associate head writer for The Bold and the Beautiful. After undergoing financial core status during the writer's strike of 2008 - which caused her to lose her voting rights in the guild - she served as defacto head-writer and, after the strike was over, Alden was appointed co-head writer of B&B. A position which she held until October 2013. In the long course of her career, Alden has won 5 Daytime Emmy Awards (including 2 when she served as head writer) and 2 Writer's Guild Awards. Alden never really moved to the West Coast where her scripts were brought to life, although two of her three children had minor roles as child actors on Y&R. Alden has been married for decades to esteemed Chicagoan business man Vernon Nelson, her high school sweetheart whom she met again 15 years after their graduation. They share three adult children: Constance Conci Nelson, John Nelson-Alden and Noah Nelson.

7 wins and 24 nominations

Filmography

Actor

Type

Year

Act Super Naturally Feature Film2025Bear Lake New Member

The 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards TV Special2006Self

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television Poster

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television TV Series1997Self

Writer

The Bold and the Beautiful TV Series1987

The Young and the Restless TV Series1973

McKeever and the Colonel TV Series1962

Producer

Act Super Naturally Feature Film2025

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