actress. But in 2006, when she watched her mother, Broadway actress LaChanze, win a Tony for her portrayal of Celie in the 2005 theater production of The Color Purple, she knew she wanted to do something that provided the same joy she saw on her mother’s face the night she accepted her award.
Gooding was six years old when she witnessed that moment. By the time she was 17, she was cast in the reading for what would become the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill, written by Diablo Cody and based on the music of Alanis Morissette.
When the show finally made it to Broadway in 2019, Gooding played one of four leads, Frankie Healy: a 17-year-old Black, bisexual activist who was adopted into an affluent white family in Connecticut.
Gooding received several accolades for her performance, including a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.
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