How Creator/Headwriter Michele Val Jean Brought Hope Back to Soap Operas with “Beyond the Gates”

Michele Val Jean

Think of where daytime soaps were in 2023, when “Days of Our Lives” went to Peacock and the only three network soaps left were CBS’s “The Young and the Restless,” CBS’s “The Bold and the Beautiful,” and ABC’s “General Hospital.” No new soap operas had been created since “Passions” in 1999, and ABC had canceled “All My Children” in 2011 and “One Life to Live” in 2012. Our beloved daytime soap medium was branded a terminal case by many.

But take a look at the recent Daytime Emmy nominations. “Beyond the Gates,” created in February 2025 by Michele Val Jean (who is also the show’s head writer), received an astounding 15 Daytime Emmy nominations — seven for acting and eight for production. The nominations included Best Show and Best Writer for Val Jean. Indeed, the success of “Beyond the Gates” may be daytime soaps’ best-ever comeback story.

Behind the show — produced for CBS by Procter & Gamble and the NAACP — is a creative team headed by Executive Producer Sheila Ducksworth and a very experienced, very savvy headwriter, Michele Val Jean, who over the course of a long writing career worked with some of the medium’s best talents on “Generations,” “Santa Barbara,” “GH,” and “B&B.”

But let’s let Val Jean talk about her amazing soap education.

Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Val Jean grew up watching soaps like “GH” with her mother and her grandmother. Her introductory writing jobs were on primetime’s “Jake and the Fatman” and “Magnum P.I.” Executive Producer Jorn Winther (once of “AMC”) brought her into the fledgling “Generations,” the first daytime soap opera to feature a major black family from its inception. From there, she went to “SB,” which was executive-produced and written by Bridget and Jerome Dobson. “I loved the Dobsons — they were delightful,” she recalls. She considered those two head writers her mentors. Val Jean particularly liked the humor on the show. “Wasn’t Louise Sorel (who played Augusta Lockridge) just hysterical?”

After “SB” was canceled, she went to “GH,” where she worked for and was very inspired by the great head writer Claire Labine. “I loved Claire — she was funny and brilliant,” says Val Jean. Labine taught her how to develop characters like Kevin (played by Jon Lindstrom, who also played Kevin’s murderous twin, Ryan.) “I learned in great detail how to work with an actor’s strengths,” she recalls. (Not so coincidentally, Lindstrom now plays Joey Armstrong on “Beyond the Gates.”)

Having been raped in real life as a teenager, Val Jean brought an interesting viewpoint to the “GH” storyline in which young Elizabeth Webber (who was the girlfriend of Lucky Spencer and was played by Rebecca Herbst) was raped. Val Jean didn’t like the infamous 1981 rape of Laura (played by Genie Francis). “It was called a seduction” she remembers. (ABC actually publicized it that way.) “But it wasn’t one. It was rape.” So Val Jean bravely wrote scripts in which Luke (Lucky’s father) finally came to terms years later with his very violent and reprehensible act. The late Tony Geary’s brilliance as an actor helped make Val Jean’s scenes vastly memorable

After “GH” Val Jean went to “B&B” for 12 years, where she worked with head writer Bradley Bell. She also worked on Jamey Giddens’s OWN soap, “Ambitions,” which aired from 2019-20. (Giddens is the new co-head writer of “Y&R.”)

Working at home during COVID, Valjean conceived the idea for “Beyond the Gates,” which is centered around the Dupree family of Fairmont Crest, a leafy Maryland suburb of Washington DC. The show would be produced in Atlanta, outside of Los Angeles and New York, a first for soap operas.

In the Duprees, Val Jean was determined to depict a black family of intellect and purpose. The former U.S. senator Vernon Dupree (played by Clifton Davis) and his wife, Anita (played by Tamara Tunie), are characters of heart and mind. “I love Tamara,” Val Jean says. “We were very lucky to get her.” (Tunie had been busy with Broadway and primetime gigs such as “Law and Order: SVU” and “Blue Bloods” after years on “As the World Turns” as Jessica Griffin.) Val Jean was also happy to cast Karla Mosely as the Dupree’s daughter Dani. (Val Jean had scripted the actress’s very unusual transexual character, Maya, on “B&B.”)

Both Tunie and Mosley have been nominated this year for Best Actress. “We really wanted the Anita story to be meaningful, as the cancer strain she was diagnosed with is particular to black women.” Val Jean is also proud that actresses who play some of the have-not characters on the show, including Trisha Mann-Grant (who plays the delicious villainess Leslie) and Jasmine Burke (who plays the very unique June) have also been nominated for Daytime Emmys. Also receiving nominations were Arielle Prepetit (who plays Naomi), Mike Manning (who plays Smitty), Timon Kyle Durrett (who plays Bill), and Ambyr Michelle (who plays Eva.)

“Beyond the Gates” has scored a real triumph with so many Emmy nominations in its first eligible year. “I am so proud of everything we’ve done with this show since the start,” Val Jean says.

She has a personal favorite segment from the show. A few months back the show staged a fashion and entertainment show called The Cotillion that Val Jean says was the idea of Ducksworth. Broadway’s Jennifer Holliday performed, and the women of the cast wore the spectacular creations of the show’s costume designer, Jeresa Featherstone. “Isn’t she just amazing?” marvels Val Jean, who especially loved the reunion of the Articulettes, the girl group Anita had sung in when she was young.

When the Daytime Emmys roll around this fall, there is a distinct possibility that Val Jean and “Beyond the Gates” could pull off top honors in the Best Show and Best Writing categories. Even if it doesn’t, Val Jean and her show have already made history. With her stunning and timely success, she has shown that daytime soaps may have many lives left to live.
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Marlena would like to thank Mike Poirer and Vince Morasco for their research assistance.