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.
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Good news! She’s dead. Director Jon M. Chu has revealed the first look at Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in the movie version of “Wicked.” “You weren’t told the whole story.
What happens when you veer off the Yellow Brick Road? FIRST LOOK of the #WickedMovie … currently in production in Oz,” Chu wrote on Instagram.A post shared by Jon M Chu (@jonmchu) A prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked” recounts everything that happened before Dorothy sauntered down that iconic yellow brick road — and tells the story of how a green-skinned woman named Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
Erivo and Grande are starring in the film as Elphaba and Glinda, who form an unlikely friendship that is torn apart by external forces.
Additional cast members include Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Ethan Slater as Boq.
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