Cynthia Erivo
British actress and singer-songwriter (born 1987)
Cynthia Erivo ( ə-REE-voh; born 8 January 1987) is an English actress and singer. Known for her work on both stage and screen, she is the recipient of several accolades and one of few individuals nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (EGOT), winning all but the Oscar. Erivo was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to music and drama.
Erivo made her West End debut in the stage musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (2011), and her Broadway debut as Celie in the musical revival of The Color Purple (2015–2017). Erivo's work for The Color Purple won her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, as well as a Daytime Emmy Award.
She expanded to films in 2018 with the crime thrillers Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale. Erivo earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying Harriet Tubman in Harriet (2019) and Elphaba in Wicked (2024), as well as a nomination for Best Original Song for the song "Stand Up" from the former. For reprising her role as Elphaba in Wicked: For Good (2025), she became the first black actress to be nominated twice for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards. Erivo's rendition of "Defying Gravity" with Ariana Grande from the Wicked soundtrack won her a second Grammy Award.
On television, Erivo portrayed Holly Gibney in the HBO crime drama miniseries The Outsider (2020) and Aretha Franklin in National Geographic's anthology series Genius: Aretha (2021); the latter earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
“Cynthia Erivo” enters the record as british actress and singer-songwriter (born 1987). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cynthia, Erivo and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21592474. VIAF identifies the subject as 14146635487941980770. The Library of Congress control number is no2016077570. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1987, 2026, 2011 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cynthia Erivo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.