UNEXPECTED GATE-CRASHER

COLBY NATASHA NIXON STEPS “BEYOND THE GATES” WITH HER FIRST TV ROLE.

Colby Natasha Nixon didn’t grow up watching soap operas. She never saw Marlena’s possession in Salem on “Days of Our Lives.” She had no idea that Victor Newman was Victoria’s real father, as revealed on “Young and the Restless.” And she wasn’t even born yet when “General Hospital’s” Luke and Laura made television history by marrying in a wedding watched by 30 million viewers (with a cameo by none other than Elizabeth Taylor).

It wasn’t until Nixon booked her own role as Katherine “Kat” Richardson on CBS’s newest daytime drama, “Beyond the Gates,” that she understood the impact of the enduring and beloved soap opera genre and of the show itself.

“I didn’t realize how many people were raised on soap operas. And I didn’t realize how historic this show was,” says Nixon, who landed her role in 2024. Filmed at Assembly Studios in Doraville and premiered in February 2025, “Beyond the Gates” is the first new network soap in more than 25 years and the first American daytime drama to feature a predominantly Black cast since NBC’s “Generations” in 1989. The show focuses on a prestigious, multi-generational family living in a gated, suburban Maryland community. Nixon, who relocated to the Buckhead area for the opportunity, plays the confident and stylish Kat, daughter of main characters, Nicole and Ted Richardson. “When I started doing research about [executive producer] Sheila Ducksworth and the production, I was floored. I couldn’t believe that someone like me—a girl from Richmond, Virginia, who just completed graduate school—could be lucky enough to be on this iconic show. I feel incredibly grateful, and I’m still pinching myself more than a year in.”

Read in full at Simply Buckhead