Betty Buckley is an American actress and singer. Buckley is the winner of a Tony Award, and was nominated for an additional Tony Award, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Olivier Award. In 2012, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Sheryl Lee Ralph is an American actress and singer. Known for her performances on stage and screen, she earned acclaim for her role as Deena Jones in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls (1981), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Since 2021 she has starred as Barbara Howard on the ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, becoming the first Black woman in 35 years to win the award.
Alice Childress was an American novelist, playwright, and actress, acknowledged as "the only African-American woman to have written, produced, and published plays for four decades." Childress described her work as trying to portray the have-nots in a have society, saying: "My writing attempts to interpret the 'ordinary' because they are not ordinary. Each human is uniquely different. Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvellously intricate in thought and action, our problems are most complex and, too often, silently borne." Childress became involved in social causes, and formed an off-Broadway union for actors.
Juanita Hall was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary – a role that garnered her the Tony Award – and Flower Drum Song as Madame Liang.
LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, known professionally as LaChanze, is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2006 for her role as Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple. LaChanze has subsequently received three more Tony Awards, this time as a producer, for co-producing Kimberly Akimbo, Topdog/Underdog, and The Outsiders.
Michele Pawk is an American actress and singer. She is also an associate theater professor.
Jean Isabel Smith, credited professionally as J. Smith-Cameron, is an American actress. She gained prominence for her roles as Janet Talbot in the Sundance TV series Rectify (2013–2016) and Gerri Kellman in the HBO series Succession (2018–2023), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Katori Hall is an American playwright, screenwriter, producer, actress, and director from Memphis, Tennessee. Hall's best known works include the hit television series P-Valley, the Tony-nominated Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and plays such as Hurt Village, Our Lady of Kibeho, Children of Killers, The Mountaintop, and The Hot Wing King, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Montego Glover is an American stage actress and singer. She has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in the musical Memphis and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical.
Ragtime is a musical with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by E.L. Doctorow.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph is an American actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of psychic Oda Mae Brown in the Broadway production of Ghost (2012), for which she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Randolph went on to appear in the films The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014) and Office Christmas Party (2016) prior to receiving praise for her roles in Dolemite Is My Name (2019) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2020). Randolph received critical acclaim for her performance in The Holdovers (2023), which earned her several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
June Louise Squibb is an American actress. She began her career by making her Broadway debut in the musical Gypsy (1959). Her first film role was in the 1990 romantic comedy Alice by Woody Allen. She later had supporting roles in the films The Age of Innocence (1993), In & Out (1997), Meet Joe Black (1998), About Schmidt (2002), and Far from Heaven (2002).
Danielle Brooks is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as prison inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019).
Jennifer Lin Colella is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in musical theatre.
Alyson Mackenzie Stroker is an American actress, author and singer. She is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage, and also the first to be nominated for and win a Tony Award. Stroker was a finalist on the second season of The Glee Project and later appeared as a guest star on Glee in 2013. She played Anna in Deaf West Theatre's 2015 revival of Spring Awakening, and won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in Oklahoma!
Denée Ayana Benton is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her performance as Natasha Rostova in the 2016 musical Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Benton’s other Broadway credits include the role of Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton (2018) and the role of Cinderella in Into the Woods (2022). Her television acting credits include UnREAL and The Gilded Age.
Jeremy Pope is an American actor and singer. Pope is the sixth person in Tony Award history to be nominated in two categories for separate performances during the same year, when he received nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his role as Pharus Jonathan Young in Choir Boy and Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for his role as Eddie Kendricks in Ain't Too Proud in 2019, the latter of which also earned him a nomination for a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
Paradise Square is a stage musical, with music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Masi Asare and Nathan Tysen, and a book by Christina Anderson, Larry Kirwan and Craig Lucas. Set in New York City during the Civil War and the New York City draft riots, the musical follows conflict between Irish Americans and Black Americans. The production is directed by Moisés Kaufman and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, with intimacy direction by Gaby Labotka. The musical opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on April 3, 2022.
Chilina Kennedy is a Canadian musical theatre actress and singer. She is best known for having starred as Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, having played the role for over 1,200 performances. On Broadway, Kennedy played Mary Magdalene in the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar and originated the role of Annie Lewis in Paradise Square. Kennedy also starred as Dina in the first North American tour of The Band's Visit.
Joy Woods is an American stage actress.
