Cynthia Erivo, who started off as a theatre and West End star before making a seamless move to working on the big screen, has never attracted a Bafta film performance nomination until Wicked.
She may be coming to attention with blockbuster audiences for her turn as the green witch, Elphaba in the prequel to The Wizard Of Oz (1939) which is based on the musical of the same name, but the 38-year-old British actress already has a best actress Oscar nod for her star turn in Harriet.
Her role in Wicked has seen Erivo as one of two British stars including Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths nominated in the Bafta leading actress category this year.
They will compete against American actress Demi Moore for The Substance, US-born Irish actress Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun, American actress Mikey Madison for Anora, and Spanish actress Karla Sofia Gascon for Emilia Perez.
Erivo has previously been nominated for an EE Rising Star Award in 2019, when she lost out to Black Panther film series star Letitia Wright.
While playing slave abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who led more than a dozen missions to free others, Erivo won the breakthrough performance award at the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Film Awards Gala along with getting a Golden Globe nod for the role.
She also called out diversity at the Academy Awards in 2020, telling the Hollywood Reporter that year it was “saddening” that she was the only person of colour to be nominated in an acting category after her Harriet nomination.
The Londoner also claimed that year she was invited by Bafta to deliver a musical performance after its “all-white” controversy, following the British film awards also having no acting nominations in the main four categories with people of colour that year.
She said organisers had made her feel like a “token” and that they were using her “as an entertainment” rather than embracing diversity on Naomi Campbell’s No Filter With Naomi YouTube series.
Erivo is also known for her portrayal of Celie in the Broadway revival of The Colour Purple, for which she took home Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards.
Her film roles also include Sir Steve McQueen’s heist movie Widows and noir thriller Bad Times At The El Royale, and playing “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin in the series Genius: Aretha, for which she was Emmy nominated.
In the Wicked film, which explores the friendship between Glinda, played by Ariana Grande and Elphaba, who is misunderstood due to her green skin, before they become estranged, she uses her vocal talent to reach the high notes of the well known musical’s songs and new tracks.
The re-imagining of L Frank Baum’s stories also shows Elphaba became villainised by the rulers of Oz after rebelling against them.
Directed by Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M Chu, the film also stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Outside of acting, Erivo has also appeared as a Strictly Come Dancing judge during the Covid pandemic when Motsi Mabuse and Craig Revel Horwood had to self-isolate.
That same year she opened up about her identity following the release of her music video for The Good, a story about Black queer love.
She told British Vogue she identified as bisexual, and told the PA news agency in May last year she was “really proud I came out the way I did”.
Erivo has also appeared in the musical I Can’t Sing!, which tells the story of a young woman who lives in a caravan with a talking dog and finds fame on the talent show, and a musical version of the Hollywood film Sister Act.
