Teresa Graves was an African-American actress and singer. She was born on January 10, 1948 in Houston, Texas.

She began her career singing in a band called the Doodletown Pipers . She soon turned to acting. She was a regular in the two variety flops "Our Place " (1967) and "Turn On " (1969), then became a regular on the variety show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" where she stayed for a year. She then appeared in other TV shows and movies including the made-for-TV police movie Get Christie Love! (1974; she played the title role in the film and in a short-lived TV show of the same name) which made her the first black woman to play the lead in a police movie and show. In 1983, she gave up show business completely to be a Jehovah's Witness. On October 10, 2002, fire fighters found her unconscious in a bedroom of her home in Hyde Park, California, and she was rushed to the Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital where she pronounced dead on arrival. It is believed that the fire was caused by a faulty heater. She was 54 years old.