Renée Elise Goldsberry

Renée Elise Goldsberry is an American actress and singer who was born in San Jose, California, and raised in Houston and Detroit. She trained in theater at Carnegie Mellon University and later earned a master's degree in jazz studies from the University of Southern California. Her stage career took off with Broadway roles in Rent, The Color Purple, and Good People, but she gained stardom for originating Angelica Schuyler in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, winning a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Grammy Award for the original cast album. On screen she appeared in Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway (2008), Pistol Whipped (2008), Every Secret Thing (2014), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017), The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), and Waves (2019). She also played Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live and Wickie Roy on Girls5eva, and earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for the filmed recording of Hamilton.