Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo is one step away from Egot glory

Cynthia Erivo is just one step away from Egot glory as she is set to compete for a second time for the best actress award at the Oscars ceremony, this time for her role in the musical Wicked.

At the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles, California, she is up against Demi Moore for body horror The Substance, Mikey Madison for comedy Anora, Spanish star Karla Sofia Gascon for musical Emilia Perez and Fernanda Torres for Portuguese-language film I’m Still Here.

Erivo may be coming to the attention of blockbuster audiences for her star turn as the green witch Elphaba in the prequel to The Wizard Of Oz (1939), but the 38-year-old British actress already has a Tony, a Daytime Emmy Award and a Grammy gong for the Broadway revival of The Color Purple.

This means she is one step away from being an Egot winner, the highly coveted status given to people who have won all four of the major American art awards including the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony,

Previous Egot winners include Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Sir Elton John and musical duo Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice.

For Harriet, about the abolitionist Harriet Tubman who freed people through the Underground Railroad, Erivo earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nod and won the breakthrough performance award at the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival’s Film Awards Gala.

During the 2020 awards season, she called out diversity at the Academy Awards, telling the Hollywood Reporter that year it was “saddening” that she was the only person of colour to be Oscar 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 on Naomi Campbell’s No Filter With Naomi YouTube series that organisers had made her feel like a “token” and that they were using her “as an entertainment” rather than embracing diversity.

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.

The Wicked film, directed by Jon M Chu, has seen her secure nods at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, film Baftas and Critics Choice Awards.

The reimagining of writer L Frank Baum’s story explores the friendship between Glinda, played by US pop star Ariana Grande, and Elphaba (Erivo), who is misunderstood due to her green skin, before they become estranged.

Erivo will return for the Wicked sequel Wicked: For Good, which is set to come out later this year.

Outside of acting, she has also appeared as a guest Strictly Come Dancing judge and opened up about her identity.

She told the PA news agency in May last year she was “really proud I came out the way I did”, when she said she was bisexual.

Earlier this week, Erivo, who has also appeared in the musicals I Can’t Sing! and Sister Act, released new solo track Replay.

This year, the LGBT+ organisation GLAAD said she would be honoured with the Stephen F Kolzak Award, which goes to a “professional who has made a significant difference in raising visibility and promoting acceptance of LGBTQ people and issues”, and the Tony awards named her as its host for 2025.

Published: 02/03/2025 by Radio NewsHub