Maleah Joi Moon

Maleah Joi Moon is an American actress and singer who made her Broadway debut in 2024. Born and raised in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey, she graduated from Franklin High School in 2020. Her early exposure to performance came through theater and singing classes taught by Timothy Walton at Franklin Township, and in sixth grade she played Dorothy in a school production of The Wizard of Oz.

Moon's first television credit came in 2022, when she appeared in Disney Television Discovers: Talent Showcase. The following year she portrayed Brook in the television film Mystic Christmas, directed by Marlo Hunter and featuring Jessy Schram and Chandler Massey. Also in 2023, The New York Times included Moon on its list of Theater Artists to Watch This Fall.

Her stage career advanced significantly in 2023 when she auditioned for Alicia Keys' musical Hell's Kitchen and was cast in the lead role of Ali. The production ran Off-Broadway at The Public Theater from November 2023 through January 2024, with a cast that included Shoshana Bean, Kecia Lewis, Crystal Monee Hall, and Brandon Victor Dixon. The show subsequently transferred to Broadway's Shubert Theatre in 2024. On March 22, 2024, Moon performed the musical's original song "Kaleidoscope" alongside Alicia Keys and the cast on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

For her performance in Hell's Kitchen, Moon received a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the production's accompanying album. She was also nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. On May 6, 2024, Moon made her Met Gala debut wearing Collina Strada.