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.
Halle Berry Is ‘Eternally Miffed’ That She’s Still the Only Black Woman to Win the Best Actress Oscar: ‘I’m Continually Saddened by That Year After Year’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Halle Berry continues to be disappointed with the Oscars as she remains the only Black performer to ever win the Academy Award for best actress.
She took home the prize for “Monster’s Ball” at the 2002 Oscars, and only one other woman of color (Michelle Yeoh for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”) has won best actress in the 22 years since. “I’m still eternally miffed that no Black woman has come behind me for that best actress Oscar, I’m continually saddened by that year after year,” Berry said in an interview with Marie Claire. “And it’s certainly not because there has been nobody deserving.” Berry pointed to Oscar-nominated performances by Andra Day in “The United States vs.
Billie Holiday” and Viola Davis in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” as two examples of performances that deserved an Oscar. Speaking to Variety a few years ago, Berry also cited Cynthia Erivo in “Harriet” and Ruth Negga in “Loving” as other Oscar-worthy performances by Black women. “I thought there were women that rightfully, arguably, could have, should have.
I hoped they would have, but why it hasn’t gone that way, I don’t have the answer,” she said at the time. Berry added to Variety that her win remained “one of my biggest heartbreaks” as it never opened up a door for more Black women at the Oscars as she proclaimed during her acceptance speech. “The morning after, I thought, ‘Wow, I was chosen to open a door.’ And then, to have no one … I question, ‘Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?’” Berry said. “I wanted to believe it was so much bigger than me.
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