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.
Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Poker Face” Season 2 is continuing to build out its guest cast with Cynthia Erivo, Margo Martindale, and BJ Novak all joining the next installment of the Peacock series.
The trio will appear alongside series lead Natasha Lyonne in the mystery-of-the-week series. They join previously announced guest stars Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Gaby Hoffmann, Kumal Nanjiani, Sherry Cola, Kevin Corrigan, Ben Marshall, and Katherine Narducci.
The role keeps Erivo in the Universal family, as she is set to star in the studio’s upcoming feature adaptation of “Wicked,” due out in theaters on Nov.
22. Erivo previously received two Oscar nominations for the film “Harriet,” based on the life of Harriet Tubman. She got one nod for best actress and another for best original song alongside Joshuah Brian Campbell.
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