Cynthia Erivo
Biography
Cynthia Erivo is an English actress and singer who moved from the West End to Broadway and then to Hollywood. Born in Stockwell, London, she made her West End debut in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, then played Celie in a production of The Color Purple at the Menier Chocolate Factory before reprising the role on Broadway, where she won a Tony for her musical performance and a Grammy for the album. She began making films in 2018 with Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) and Widows (2018), and received Oscar nominations for playing Harriet Tubman in Harriet (2019) and Elphaba in Wicked (2024), a role she returned to in Wicked: For Good (2025). Her other screen credits include Chaos Walking (2021), Pinocchio (2022) and Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023). She has also released solo albums.
39years old
Turns 40 on January 8in 58 days
- Born Stockwell
- Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19
- Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Amarachukwu Owezuke Echimino Erivo (birth name)Also credited as Cynthia Chinasaokwu Onyedinmanasu Owezuke Amarachukwu Echimino Erivo
Movie Career
- Films
- 11
- Career span
- 7 years2018 to 2025
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First role
Erivo's first stage role was in Marine Parade, a work by Simon Stephens that was staged at the Brighton Festival.
First role
Erivo took her first musical part in I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, written by John Adams and June Jordan, staged at Theatre Royal Stratford East.
First role
In the West End musical I Can't Sing!, Cynthia Erivo played Chenice from its opening at the London Palladium on 26 March 2014 until the production closed on 10 May, six weeks and three days later.
Behind the award
For a performance on NBC's The Today Show in May 2016, Erivo and the rest of The Color Purple cast earned a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, which they received in April 2017.
A first
Erivo's version of "Defying Gravity" became her first UK top-ten hit, and the album it was on entered the US Billboard 200 chart at number two.
Cynthia Erivo movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Bad Times at the El Royale2018 Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thrilleras Darlene Sweet
IMDb rating 7.1181K votes
Most often with
Jon M. Chu directed two of these films. Seven actors appear in three of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Jeff Goldblum's page
Michelle Yeoh's page
Ariana Grande's page
Bowen Yang's page
Jonathan Bailey's page
Ethan Slater's page
All films by Jon M. Chu
Also three films together1 more actor
- Marissa BodeWicked: For Good (2025), Wicked: One Wonderful Night (2025) and Wicked (2024)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Awards
Eight awards and honors from 2016 to 2026, three of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tony Awards | |||
| 2016 | Best Actress in a Musical | Won | |
| Grammy Awards | |||
| 2026 | Best Pop Duo/Group Performance | Won | |
| 2017 | Best Musical Theater Album | The Color Purple | Won |
| Other honors | |||
| 2026 | Member of the Order of the British Empire | Won | |
| 2020 | Female Performance in Film | Harriet | Won |
| 2018 | OkayAfrica 100 Women | Won | |
| 2016 | Theatre World Award | Won | |
| Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Won | ||
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.