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.
Stephen Sondheim to Be Saluted at Grammys by Rachel Zegler, Cynthia Erivo, Ben Platt, Leslie Odom Jr. (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comStephen Sondheim is due to be remembered in song at the upcoming Grammy Awards by Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler, sources tell Variety.The performances, which have not yet been officially announced, are said to be part of the show’s traditional In Memoriam segment, rather than a separate moment during the telecast.Sondheim died on Nov.
26 at age 91. The Grammys are the first of several awards shows that are expected to fete the composing great in some fashion this year, with the Oscars, Tonys and Emmys likely to follow.
Sondheim was most awarded by the Grammys and Tonys — fielding eight trophies from each — and picked up a single Oscar for original song for “Sooner or Later” from “Dick Tracy.” The singers involved in the Grammy tribute have performed the music of Sondheim in the past.
Erivo has a long history with the songwriter, including a “Ladies Who Sing Sondheim” concert in 2016, and more recently singing “The Miller’s Son” at the 2019 Sondheim Award Gala.
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