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.
The Broadway musical The Color Purple is being turned into a movie and a director has been selected! Blitz Bazawule, who co-directed Beyonce‘s Black Is King visual album for Disney+, is going to helm the upcoming feature for Warner Bros. Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones are producing the movie.
In a statement to Deadline, Oprah said, “We, were all blown away by Blitz’s unique vision as a director and look forward to seeing how he brings the next evolution of this beloved story to life.” Casting has not yet been announced for the movie, but Cynthia Erivo seems to be a shoo-in for the role of Celie.
She played the role in the recent Broadway revival, which launched her career. Cynthia could make movie history
Read more on justjared.com