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.
This Was The Hardest Scene From 'Genius: Aretha' For Cynthia Erivo To Film
essence.comGenius: Aretha, you know the National Geographic series captures both the highs and lows of Aretha Franklin’s journey from a talented young girl to an adult superstar.
Learning new aspects about the Queen of Soul’s life and some of her most influential relationships is quite an emotional experience for the audience.
It also made for some difficult scenes to film for series lead Cynthia Erivo.“This was something that I didn’t realize [about Aretha Franklin],” she tells ESSENCE. “When she knows that her father is dying, I didn’t realize that she had held on to him.
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