Cynthia Erivo

• 1. Introduction

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  Cynthia Erivo, whose surname is pronounced uh-REE-voh, belongs to a very small group. She has been nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. She has won every one of them except the Oscar. That set of four honors is known as an EGOT, and few performers have come close to completing it.

  Erivo is British, and she moves between theatre stages, film sets and recording studios. How does a London-born performer end up with that record? Which roles changed her path, and who stood beside her when they did? And what does she do with her standing now that she has it?

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• 2. Stockwell Roots

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  Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Owezuke Amarachukwu Echimino Erivo was born on the 8th of January 1987 in Stockwell, London. Her parents were Igbo Nigerian immigrants, and both had reached the United Kingdom in their early twenties. They separated when she was very young. Her mother, Edith, then raised Cynthia and her younger sister Stephanie while working as a nurse.

  Edith was 15 years old when the Nigerian Civil War broke out. Erivo has said of her: "she's not necessarily a refugee, but … her home was ravaged, and they were on the run to find safety." The girls' father disowned them when Erivo was 16 years old, and she remains estranged from him.

  Erivo attended La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School in Clapham Park, and her confirmation name is Perpetua. Performing began early. As a child she had parts in Bertolt Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle, and she later appeared on television in Trust Me, I'm a Teenager.

  In 2004 she began a music psychology degree at the University of East London. A year into it, she applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, known as RADA, and transferred once she was accepted. She graduated in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in acting. Years later, when she started a production company, she named it Edith's Daughter as a tribute to her mother.

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• 3. Stage Apprenticeship

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  Marine Parade, a play by Simon Stephens at the Brighton Festival, gave Erivo her first stage role. Her first musical role followed in I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, by John Adams and June Jordan, at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Early television credits included Chewing Gum and The Tunnel.

  The Umbrellas of Cherbourg in 2011 marked her West End debut. She also toured the United Kingdom in Sister Act, playing Deloris Van Cartier, who hides as Sister Mary Clarence. Whoopi Goldberg had originated that role in the film version.

  On the 9th of December 2012, Erivo appeared in Living Every Day, a piece by Alexander S. Bermange and Stephen Clark. It was performed as part of The 24 Hour Musicals Celebrity Gala at the Old Vic in London's West End.

  In 2013 she played Celie Harris in The Color Purple at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Goldberg had originated that role on screen too, so the same actress stood behind two of Erivo's early parts. She also co-wrote and performed the song "Fly Before You Fall" for the musical drama film Beyond the Lights.

  I Can't Sing! opened at the London Palladium on the 26th of March 2014, with Erivo originating the role of Chenice. Reviews were mixed. The show closed on the 10th of May, only six weeks and three days after its official opening night.

  From July to August 2014, Erivo starred in the European premiere of Dessa Rose at Trafalgar Studios in London. The performance earned her a nomination for Best Leading Actress in a musical at the 2015 BroadwayWorld UK Awards. That same year, her Celie would travel to New York.

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• 4. Celie on Broadway

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  On the 10th of December 2015, performances began at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre for the Broadway transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of The Color Purple. Erivo made her Broadway debut there, reprising the role of Celie Harris. Jennifer Hudson played Shug Avery, and Danielle Brooks played Sofia.

  The New York Times wrote: "Ms. Erivo's sobering and stirring portrayal of Celie, in a rapturously reviewed revival of The Color Purple... has brought the kind of praise that can change a performer's career." The performance won her several awards, including the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

  In April 2017, Erivo and the cast won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program. The award honored their appearance on NBC's The Today Show in May 2016. The cast album also won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

  On the 12th of September 2016, she sang the role of Cathy opposite Joshua Henry in a one-night concert of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. Proceeds went to the Brady Center, a national gun violence organisation.

  At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2017, she performed "God Only Knows" with John Legend, as a tribute to musicians who had died over the previous year. In November 2017 she joined the charity benefit Night of Too Many Stars, hosted by Jon Stewart. There she sang Andra Day's "Rise Up" as a duet with Jodi DiPiazza, accompanied by Questlove and The Roots. The following year, she would make her first appearance in a feature film.

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• 5. From Stage to Screen

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  Bad Times at the El Royale, a neo-noir thriller from 2018, was Erivo's film debut, and she played Darlene Sweet. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times called her performance "revelatory in the most rewarding sense."

  Widows, a heist thriller directed by Steve McQueen, came out the same year. It was the first film she had ever shot. David Sims of The Atlantic singled out her "incredible work" in portraying her character's dramatic transformation.

  Harriet, a biographical film about the American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, began production in October 2018 and finished filming in January 2019. It was released on the 1st of November 2019. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called Erivo "a powerful physical presence in the title role."

  The performance brought a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama. Erivo also co-wrote and performed the film's song "Stand Up", which earned a second Golden Globe nomination, for Best Original Song.

  In 2020 came two Academy Award nominations: Best Actress for her Tubman and Best Original Song for "Stand Up". Only two people had earned both acting and songwriting nominations for one film before her, Mary J. Blige for Mudbound and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born. Erivo was the first person of color to do so in a leading role. Her next big role, also in 2020, would be an investigator in a Stephen King adaptation.

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• 6. Range and Tributes

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  In 2020, Erivo starred as the investigator Holly Gibney in The Outsider, an HBO miniseries adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name. That year she also launched Edith's Daughter and signed a first-look deal with MRC to develop television projects.

  Chaos Walking reached audiences on the 5th of March 2021. The science fiction film is based on Patrick Ness's novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. That month, the third season of the anthology series Genius premiered, with Erivo as Aretha Franklin. Franklin's family criticized the season, but Erivo herself was praised. She earned Best Actress nominations from the Primetime Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

  On the 7th of September 2021, Erivo released her debut studio album, Ch. 1 Vs. 1, after putting out the songs "The Good" and "Glowing Up". That same month, she joined the jury of the 78th Venice International Film Festival.

  In July 2022, Erivo sang at the BBC Proms, performing tributes to women who have inspired her. John Bungey of The Times highlighted her versions of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Ain't No Way". At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, she performed a medley of Stephen Sondheim songs in the In Memoriam segment. Rachel Zegler, Leslie Odom Jr. and Ben Platt joined her. Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone described it as a "moving" and "fitting" tribute.

  Disney's 2022 live-action Pinocchio, directed by Robert Zemeckis, gave Erivo the part of the Blue Fairy. The film was poorly received. Even so, Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com wrote: "Erivo is such a majestic sight to behold, you'll wish there were more of her here." Later that year, Erivo sang "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music in tribute to Julie Andrews, who received the AFI Life Achievement Award.

  Luther: The Fallen Sun, a Netflix crime thriller, arrived in 2023 as a film continuation of the series starring Idris Elba, and Erivo appeared in it. That year she also played Jacqueline, a Liberian refugee, in Drift, which she produced. She drew inspiration from her mother's experience of the Nigerian Civil War.

  In 2024 she played Petra, a bold and flirtatious maid, in the Lincoln Center concert production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music at David Geffen Hall. At the Kennedy Center Honors she paid tribute to Dionne Warwick by singing "Alfie", from the 1966 film of the same name.

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• 7. The Wicked Years

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  In February 2024, Erivo was appointed vice president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. That same year she played Elphaba in Wicked, the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical.

  Wendy Ide of The Guardian wrote: "Erivo is terrific, her rich, velvety voice cracking under the weight of rejections and ridicule suffered by Elphaba." Erivo received Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Academy Awards. The Screen Actors Guild also nominated the cast for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.

  Her Academy Award nomination made her the second black actress after Viola Davis to receive more than one Best Actress nomination.

  The film's soundtrack album, released on the 22nd of November 2024, was co-billed to Erivo, who performed seven songs from the musical. It debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. Her rendition of "Defying Gravity" gave her a first UK top-ten hit.

  For reprising Elphaba in Wicked: For Good in 2025, Erivo became the first black actress nominated twice for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards. Her version of "Defying Gravity" with Ariana Grande from the first soundtrack won her a second Grammy Award. A live album and television special, Wicked: One Wonderful Night, arrived in November 2025.

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• 8. Voices and Honors

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  Carrier, a science fiction thriller podcast from 2019, gave Erivo the lead role of Raylene Watts, a long-haul truck driver hauling a trailer with "disturbing, mysterious contents." She produced it as well as starring in it. Other podcast roles include Joan in Anthem: Homunculus, Queen Malkia of the Midlands in The Two Princes, and Madame Moonshine in Hank the Cowdog. In 2024 she voiced Julia in George Orwell's 1984.

  Her voice has also reached young audiences. She voiced Kratu in Star Wars: Visions, the Archivist in Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, and the Slink in RoboGobo, a recurring role across 11 episodes. In Charlotte's Web she voiced the Goose.

  On the 6th of June 2025, Erivo released her second solo album, I Forgive You. Two days later, on the 8th of June, she hosted the 78th Tony Awards on CBS. Deadline Hollywood declared her hosting "absolutely flawless". Entertainment Weekly wrote: "From the opening seconds, Erivo defied expectations." The ceremony drew 4.85 million viewers, the most for a Tonys broadcast since 2019.

  In August 2025, she played the title role in a revival of Jesus Christ Superstar for a three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl. A one-woman adaptation of Dracula followed at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End. It was announced in May 2025, and Erivo performed all 23 roles during a 16-week engagement from the 4th of February to the 31st of May 2026. Michael Cassel and Adam Kenwright produced it, and Clemence Williams composed an original song.

  Erivo runs for pleasure. She ran the New York City Marathon in 2016, and the London Marathon in 2022 and 2026. Across her career she has been nominated for three Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Golden Globe Awards and four Actor Awards.

  In the 2026 New Year Honours, Erivo was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, known as an MBE, for services to music and drama.

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