Amber Riley
Biography
Amber Riley is an American actress, singer and songwriter who was cast as Mercedes Jones in the Fox comedy-drama Glee in 2008 and stayed with the show for all but one of its six seasons. Born in Los Angeles, she charted more than 200 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 as a member of the Glee cast, and her work on the series brought a shared Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a Grammy Award and three NAACP Image Awards. She won the seventeenth season of Dancing with the Stars in 2013, then originated Effie White in the West End debut of Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre, winning a Laurence Olivier Award and an Evening Standard Theatre Award in 2017. Her screen credits include the live broadcast of The Wiz (2015) and the Lifetime thriller Single Black Female (2022), and she voices Ursula in the animated series Ariel.
40years old
Turns 41 on February 15in 136 days
- Born Los Angeles
- Star sign: AquariusThe sign runs January 20 to February 18
- Amber Patrice Riley (birth name)Also credited as RILEY
Movie Career
- Films
- 8
- Career span
- 12 years2011 to 2023
Genres
- Comedy38%, 3 films
- Adventure25%, 2 films
- Documentary25%, 2 films
- Drama25%, 2 films
- Family25%, 2 films
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Behind the award
Riley played Effie White, the lead, in Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre, the West End's first staging of the musical. Her performance earned her the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
A role that slipped away
At 17 years old, Riley tried out for American Idol in its second season, but the show's producers rejected her.
First role
In 2002, Amber Riley got her first TV part in St. Sass, a project from Ryan Murphy, but the pilot was not picked up.
Beyond film
In 2017, while in London, Riley joined British singers Beverley Knight and Cassidy Janson to create the musical theater supergroup Leading Ladies. Their first album, Songs from the Stage, entered the UK Albums Chart in the top 20.
A first
In 2022, Riley won season eight of The Masked Singer, competing as "Harp". In 2023, she finished fourth as "Jellyfish" on The Masked Singer UK's fourth season.
A first
While part of the Glee cast, Riley landed more than 200 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy Award nomination.
Amber Riley movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Wicked in Concert: A Musical Celebration of the Iconic Broadway Score2021as Himself
IMDb rating 6.7127 votes
Worked with
Amber Riley shares two films with Queen Latifah, and one with each of the others. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Queen Latifah's page
Frank Welker's page
Whoopi Goldberg's page
Chris Rock's page
Missi Pyle's page
David Alan Grier's page
All films by Tyler Perry
Kevin TancharoenDirector, 1 film, 2011
All films by Kevin Tancharoen
Joshua CaldwellDirector, 1 film, 2020
All films by Joshua Caldwell
Awards
Four awards and honors from 2010 to 2017, one of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAG Awards | |||
| 2010 | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Glee | Won |
| Other honors | |||
| 2017 | Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical Performance | Dreamgirls | Won |
| 2017 | Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical | Dreamgirls | Won |
| 2017 | WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actress in a Musical | Dreamgirls | Won |
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.