Anita M. Cal (born October 14, 1966) is an American author, TV Writer, film producer, and international speaker best known for writing on the TBS family comedies, ''

Tyler Perry's House of Payne ''House of Payne'' is an American sitcom television series created and produced by Tyler Perry that premiered in syndication on June 21, 2006. The series revolves around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta led by patriarc ...

'' and '' Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns''. She first made a name for herself as the Writer/Producer of the comedy feature ''Kinfolks'', developed by Showtime, starring

Maia Campbell Maia Campbell is an American former film, television actress, singer and model. She is best known for her role as Nicole on the 1994 Fox comedy-drama series '' South Central'' and her portrayal of Tiffany Warren in the NBC/UPN sitcom '' In t ...

. Cal authored the December 2015 historical novel, ''Eighth Wonder: The Thomas Bethune Story'', the true tale of a slave born blind, feeble, and left for dead who began playing Mozart at the age of three. The debut novel was awarded a SELF-e Highlighted Book by Library Journal and made available in libraries throughout the 50 states.

Biography

Cal was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, the daughter of Frances O. Cal, a manager for the State Department of Transportation and Relocation, and Clarence A. Cal, Sr., an electrical engineer for the Boeing Company. Her parents, both Southern University alumni, are of African American origin, having migrated from

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Pa ...

, after her father, a former military officer was transferred to Fort Lewis. Cal attended Rainier Beach High School and transferred to Chief Sealth High School. She was an off-guard for the city, district, and 5th in state championship basketball team graduating with honors in 1984 at the age of 17. She attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

, and was a member of the EIP Early Identification Program for minorities who maintained a 3.27 GPA or higher, graduating in 1988 with a degree in Communications, Broadcasting. She also studied screenwriting at Cal State University, Northridge, winning a Best Graduate Screenwriting Scholarship from Garry Marshall and graduating with honors in 1998. In 2015, Cal became a double doctoral student at Pepperdine University, studying Organizational Leadership and Global Leadership with expected graduation dates of May 2017 and May 2018. Cal became a published scholar during her first semester of doctoral studies when the International Journal of Arts and Sciences selected her research with Dr. Leo Mallette on Celebrities and the United Nations: Leadership and referent power of global film ambassadors. Cal began using her middle initial when she began writing as a reporter intern at the '' Seattle Times'' upon graduating college. She soon was selected as a general assignment and education reporter for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' through the METPRO journalist training program. Cal also covered education for the ''Times Mirror Greenwich Times''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cal, Anita M. 1966 births Living people American television writers Writers from Seattle University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni Screenwriters from Washington (state) American women film producers Film producers from Washington (state) American women television writers African-American women writers African-American screenwriters 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women