Ariana DeBose

Ariana DeBose is an American actress, singer, and dancer born on January 25, 1991, in Wilmington, North Carolina. She was raised in Raleigh, where she trained in dance at CC & Co. Dance Complex. Her mother, Gina DeBose, worked as a middle school teacher. DeBose has described her heritage as including Puerto Rican, African-American, Italian, and white ancestry. She is queer and came out to her grandparents in 2015.

DeBose first came to national attention in 2009 as a contestant on the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance, where she reached the top 20. Before her Broadway career, she played Little Inez Stubbs in the North Carolina Theatre's production of Hairspray and appeared as Nautica in the Alliance Theatre's 2011 production of Bring It On. She also performed in the New York Philharmonic production of Company, which was filmed for television. Later in 2011, Bring It On embarked on a national tour, and DeBose carried her role into the show's 2012 Broadway production, where she also understudied the character Danielle.

Her Broadway career continued with Motown: The Musical in 2013, in which she played Mary Wilson and understudied the role of Diana Ross. The following year she joined the cast of Pippin, playing a noble and a player while understudying the Leading Player, a role she assumed for a period in 2014. In 2015, DeBose left Pippin to join the ensemble of Hamilton during its Off-Broadway run, developing her ensemble role as a representation of the bullet that would kill Alexander Hamilton. The production transferred to Broadway later that year, and she remained with the company until July 2016. From November 2016 through August 2017, she portrayed Jane in A Bronx Tale on Broadway.

DeBose's breakthrough on Broadway came with Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. She first played Disco Donna at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse in late 2017 before reprising the role in the Broadway production, which opened in April 2018. Her performance earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 72nd Tony Awards.

Beyond Broadway, DeBose built a substantial screen career. She played Alyssa Greene in Ryan Murphy's 2020 Netflix film adaptation of The Prom and appeared as schoolmarm Emma Tate in season one of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, returning in season two in 2023 as the Emcee. Her most prominent screen role came in Steven Spielberg's 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story, in which she played Anita. The performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 94th Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, making her the first Afro-Latina and openly queer woman of color to win the latter. In 2022, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She also provided the voice of Asha in Disney's 2023 animated film Wish.

DeBose hosted the Tony Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Her hosting of the 75th Tony Awards in 2022 earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Variety Special. She also made a recurring appearance in the fourth season of the HBO series Westworld. Her subsequent film credits include starring roles in I.S.S. and Love Hurts alongside Ke Huy Quan, a supporting role in the spy film Argylle, and an appearance as Calypso Ezili in Kraven the Hunter. She is set to play Cordelia opposite Al Pacino in Lear Rex, a film adaptation of King Lear.

In her personal life, DeBose met costume designer and professor Sue Makkoo while working on Summer: The Donna Summer Musical in 2017, and the two entered a relationship. She was previously in a relationship with theater props master Jill Johnson, whom she met during Motown: The Musical. In December 2020, DeBose and actress Jo Ellen Pellman launched the Unruly Hearts Initiative, created to connect young people with organizations and charities that advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.