Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo (born 8 January 1987) is an 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.
Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo Sang Live on ‘Wicked’ Set After Telling Their Director: ‘F— the Pre-Records. We’re Going Live’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu confirmed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that his leading ladies Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sang live on set, similar to how other movie musicals such as “La La Land” and “Les Miserables” were filmed.
Studios often rely on pre-recorded tracks when filming musical numbers, which requires performers to lip-synch along on set.
Grande and Erivo were not interested in this traditional method. “These are live vocals,” Chu said. “When we were shooting it, those girls were like, ‘Fuck the pre-records.
We’re going live.’” Chu remembered telling them that singing live on set meant “there’s going to be a lot of wind in your air pipes.
Read more on variety.com