Who is Alina Adams?
New York Times best-selling author and soap opera insider, Alina Adams, was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated with her parents to the U.S. at age seven, where she learned English by watching American soap operas at their home in San Francisco.
Alina’s childhood and immigration experience was the inspiration for her historical fiction novels, “The Nesting Dolls” (2020) and “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” (2022). Her soap-opera watching was the impetus behind Go On Pretending (2025). But, don’t worry, the USSR makes an appearance there, too!
Alina’s years glued to the television paid off. She received her B.A. and M.A. in broadcast communications at San Francisco State University and in 1994 became a writer at E! Entertainment Television’s daily talk show Pure Soap. She went on to work at ABC Television as a writer for the transition of the soap opera Loving when it was reincarnated as the daytime drama The City. She also worked as a researcher for the Daytime Emmy Awards for ten years, and currently writes what she believes to be extremely amusing soap commentary for SoapHub.
In 2001, Alina joined Procter & Gamble Productions as website producer for As the World Turns and Guiding Light, became their creative content producer in 2006, and served as their creative director of online serials in 2009. There she penned As The World Turns book tie-ins, Oakdale Confidential (New York Times‘ bestseller) and The Man From Oakdale (2010 SCRIBE Award winner), and co-wrote the Guiding Light tie-in book, Jonathan’s Story (also a New York Times bestseller). At Procter & Gamble she pioneered the concept of online continuations of a soap opera, with AnotherWorldToday.com and Mindy’s Twitter, changing how and where the genre – that began on radio – can be seen. The innovative format met with fan support and perhaps paved the way to where the industry stands today, which includes Days of Our Lives streaming directly to viewers..
In 2011, Alina produced Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments, an Enhanced Electronic Book chronicling daytime drama’s greatest moments over the past 75 years as voted on by Award-winning actors, writers, and producers, as well as other television industry professionals and of course, the fans. The Enhanced Electronic Book features exclusive interviews with the scenes’ most prominent players; links to classic video clips; and updates on “Where Are They Now?” Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments is the first book of its kind both technically and editorially, written by an accomplished best-selling author and leading expert in the daytime television genre. A paperback version is set to be released from BearManor Media in 2025.
In addition to the soap world, Alina is an accomplished fiction writer and television producer. Her knowledge of Russian took her around the world as a figure skating researcher and television producer for ABC, NBC, TNT and ESPN. She used her experience to write a book series of figure skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice, Axel of Evil, Death Drop, Skate Crime) for Berkley Prime Crime. The books are available in print and as Enhanced E-Books with professional skating videos embedded in the text as an integral part of the story. She also published a biography of Sarah Hughes three months before Hughes won the 2002 gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Her romance novels have been published by Avon and Dell, including, When a Man Loves a Woman, Annie’s Wild Ride, The Fictitious Marquis, and Thieves at Heart.
Alina lives in New York City with her husband and their three children. She is a regular contributor to TODAY Show Parenting, Mommy Poppins, Kveller, Red Tricycle, Cafe Mom and EntertainmentWeekly.com. She has written about her interracial, interfaith and intercultural family for Interfaith Family Magazine and The Forward.
In her other life, Alina runs NYCSchoolSecrets.com. She is the author of “Getting into NYC Kindergarten” and “Getting into NYC High School,” and writes about education for The 74, the NY Post, the NY Daily News, Epicenter, Advance, and anyone who wants to hear about what a bad job America is doing educating their kids.
