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.
Cynthia Erivo On Emmy Nomination For Portrayal of Aretha Franklin: “I Felt A Duty To Play Her As Honestly As Possible”
deadline.comCynthia Erivo earned her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination on Tuesday for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic limited series Genius, a role she approached with the utmost R-E-S-P-E-C-T as a longtime fan.“I learned about storytelling through music from Aretha, she’s my idol.
I grew up listening to her. So I did feel like there was a challenge there because I was playing my hero.” Erivo, who prior to playing The Queen of Soul brought to life abolitionist Harriet Tubman, told Deadline.“It’s not just the legacy of these real-life people you’re trying to portray and try to do well,” she continued. “I don’t know that there’s a right or wrong way to portray them unless you know them intimately.
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