INTERVIEW: Andreea Kindryd on her book, Gene Coon, and how the Watts riots landed her a job on Star Trek
The cover art for Andreea Kindryd's book FROM SLAVERY TO STAR TREK
AUGUST 15, 2022 - Last month, I wrote a Star Trek history column on the 1967 sale of Desilu Studios to Paramount. The next day I got an email reading, “T Rick Jones, have to say that the only good thing about the sale was eating at the Paramount Commissary where the food was much better than Desilu.”
The message was from Andreea Kindryd, one of the first two black people ever to score a job working for a major television studio. Her memoir, Code-Switching, will likely be on the shelves next month, and she’s taken excerpts from that book and packaged them in a special “Star Trek edition,” which will only be available at Creation Entertainment’s 56-Year Mission convention in Las Vegas later this month.
I had the opportunity to sit down with Ande over Zoom to chat with her about her ancestors, her involvement in the Watts riots, Gene Coon, Nichelle Nichols, and even her TED Talk about hair. You can watch the interview below, and if you’d like more, including additional photos and videos, hop on over to Heavy and read my article there.
T is the Managing Editor for Daily Star Trek News and a contributing writer for Sherlock Holmes Magazine and a Shakespeare nerd. He may have been the last professional Stage Manager to work with Leonard Nimoy, has worked Off-Broadway and regionally, and is the union Stage Manager for Legacy Theatre, where he is currently working with Julie Andrews. after which he’ll be working on Richard III at Elm Shakespeare Company.
