Cynthia Erivo

Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo (; born 8 January 1987) is a English actress, singer, and songwriter. She is known for her performance as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, the latter two she shared with the rest of the cast.

Erivo ventured into films in 2018, with roles in the heist film Widows and the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. In 2019, she portrayed abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet, for which she earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Early life and education

Erivo was born to Nigerian parents in Stockwell, South London. Her mother is a nurse. She attended La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School. Erivo began a music psychology degree at the University of East London; however, a year into her degree, she applied to, and subsequently trained at, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Theatre

Erivo first appeared in roles on British television programmes such as Chewing Gum and The Tunnel. Her first stage role was in Marine Parade by Simon Stephens at the Brighton Festival. Her first musical role was in John Adams' and June Jordan's I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

In 2013, Erivo played the role of Celie Harris in the Menier Chocolate Factory production of The Color Purple, a role which Whoopi Goldberg had originated onscreen. Erivo had previously portrayed Sister Mary Clarence/Deloris Van Cartier in a UK tour of the stage musical Sister Act, which Goldberg had originated in its film adaptation.

Erivo originated the role of Chenice in the West End musical I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical, which opened on 26 March 2014, at the London Palladium. The production closed on 10 May, just six weeks and three days since its official opening night.

She is also featured as a recording artist, co-writing and performing "Fly Before You Fall" on the soundtrack to the American musical drama Beyond the Lights.

She made her Broadway debut in the 2015 Broadway revival transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory production of The Color Purple, reprising her role as Celie Harris alongside American actresses Jennifer Hudson as Shug Avery and Danielle Brooks as Sofia. The production began performances at Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, from 10 December 2015. Among other awards for her performance, Erivo won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Erivo starred as Cathy alongside Joshua Henry in a one-night benefit concert performance of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years on September 12, 2016. Proceeds from the performance went to the Brady Center, a national gun violence organization.

In February 2017, Erivo performed "God Only Knows" as a tribute to musicians who had died over the past year alongside John Legend at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.

In March 2017, Erivo and the cast of The Color Purple were nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for their performance on NBC's The Today Show in May 2016. In April 2017, it was announced that Erivo and the cast of The Color Purple alongside The Today Show won the Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Award in the Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program category.

In November 2017 she appeared on the charity benefit "Night of too Many Stars" hosted by Jon Stewart, where she performed a duet with frequent contributor Jodi DiPiazza of the Andra Day hit "Rise Up" they were accompanied by Questlove and The Roots.

Film

In 2018, Erivo starred as part of the seven-actor ensemble of Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale, as a "down-on-her-luck singer". Filming commenced in January 2018, with an October release, making the film her first to reach theatres. Also that year, she starred in Steve McQueen's Widows, alongside Viola Davis, in the first cinema role she had filmed during the summer of 2017, with the film having been released on November 16.

Erivo portrayed the title role in Harriet, a biographical film about American abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The film began production in October 2018, completed filming in January 2019, and was released on November 1, 2019. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama; she also received a second nomination for Best Original Song for a song she co-wrote and performed for the film entitled "Stand Up". In 2020, Erivo garnered nominations for two Academy Awards–one for Best Actress for her portrayal of Tubman and the other for Best Original Song for "Stand Up".

Erivo stars as investigator Holly Gibney in the HBO miniseries The Outsider, a television adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name; it premiered in January 2020. Erivo will also appear in Chaos Walking, based on Patrick Ness' trilogy novels, with release expected in 2021.

Podcasts

Erivo co-produced and was cast as the lead voice actor in the scripted thriller podcast Carrier from the audio firm Qcode Media. She played the series lead role of Raylene 'Ray' Watts, a long-haul truck driver transporting a trailer with "disturbing, mysterious contents".