Sarah Charles Lewis

Sarah Charles Lewis is an American actress born in August 2004, best known for originating the role of Winnie Foster in the Broadway musical Tuck Everlasting. She received a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut Performance in 2016.

Lewis grew up in Milton, Georgia, and began dance classes at age four. At five, she enrolled at Renaissance International School of Performing Arts (RISPA) in Alpharetta, Georgia, where she studied ballet, tap dancing, voice, and acting. Her first stage appearance came at age six in an ensemble role in Once on This Island. At RISPA she also participated in productions of Seussical and Shrek, and by 2015 she was training there twenty hours per week. She attended the Broadway Dreams Foundation's performing arts summer camp, where she worked with Billy Porter, Stafford Arima, Tituss Burgess, and Otis Sallid.

Lewis comes from a family with ties to the performing arts. Her mother, Jennifer Lewis, majored in music and works as a real estate agent; her father, Shack Lewis, acted at the Alliance Theatre at age twelve. Her parents met through a band and continued performing together until the eighth month of Jennifer's pregnancy with Sarah. Her brother Harrison, roughly four years her senior, is also an actor. It was Harrison who, while involved in another Atlanta production, learned about the new musical Tuck Everlasting and brought it to his sister's attention.

In summer 2013, Lewis auditioned in New York City for the Broadway production of Annie, reaching a finalist group of eight before not being cast. She made her professional stage debut in April 2014, playing the title role in Annie at the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's theater reviewer Bert Osborne noted that Lewis brought a natural charm and relaxed assurance to the character, and that rather than oversinging the role, she performed the songs simply, in the clear voice of the nine-year-old she was.

After producers of Tuck Everlasting reached out to Lewis and held auditions, she was selected from a nationwide competition to play Winnie Foster in the musical's world premiere at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. Directed by Casey Nicholaw, who had previously directed or choreographed the Broadway productions of Aladdin, The Drowsy Chaperone, Spamalot, and The Book of Mormon, the Alliance Theatre production ran from January to February 2015. Lewis was among a small number of Atlanta-based performers in the cast, with most coming from New York City. The New York Times's Charles Isherwood praised her performance, describing Winnie Foster as played with a firm voice and natural spunk.

Lewis reprised the role for the musical's Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre. Following previews that began March 31, 2016, she made her official Broadway debut on opening night, April 26, 2016. During the run, Lewis and one parent lived in a New York City apartment while the other parent remained in Atlanta with her brother, with the two parents alternating between the two cities. The production closed May 29, 2016, after 28 previews and 39 official performances. Broadway critics responded positively to Lewis's work in the show. Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones called her a spunky young actress and one of the show's great assets who deftly carried nearly the entire production. The Washington Post's Peter Marks described her as technically accomplished, with a strong, clear voice and the fortitude required to carry a central Broadway role. Charles Isherwood, again reviewing her work for the New York Times, wrote that she played Winnie Foster with winning spunk that miraculously never cloys.

Among Lewis's additional honors, she received two Suzi Bass Award nominations for Best Leading Actress in a Musical — one for her portrayal of Annie at the Atlanta Lyric Theatre, which made her the youngest nominee in that category, and one for her performance in Tuck Everlasting at the Alliance Theatre. She also won the 2013 Junior Miss Access Broadway Triple Threat National Award. In 2020, she was nominated for the Shuler Hensley Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress for her role in Chicago at Milton High School.