Shoba Narayan

Shoba Narayan is an American musical theatre actress born on November 5, 1989, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to Indian immigrant parents. Growing up as the only Indian family in her town, Narayan faced mockery from classmates over her name. From an early age she pursued a broad range of performing arts training, studying ballet, bharatanatyam, voice, violin, and Carnatic music. Her first leading role came in an eighth-grade school production of The Wizard of Oz, in which she played Dorothy. She went on to earn a degree from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2012, after which she relocated to New York City to pursue a career in theatre.

Narayan's Broadway career spans 2003 to 2018 and includes credits in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Aladdin, Hamilton, and Wicked. Her Broadway debut came in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, where she played the lead role of Natasha. That performance made her the first South Asian woman to hold a lead role on Broadway since the run of Bombay Dreams in 2004. In Aladdin, she became the first South Asian actress to portray Princess Jasmine on Broadway. She also played Nessarose in Wicked, a role in which she was again a first — the first South Asian actress to take on that character.

Beyond Broadway, Narayan performed as Eliza Hamilton in the North American tour of Hamilton. She has also worked in voice acting, providing the voice of Emily on the animated television series Hazbin Hotel. In addition to her performance career, Narayan has taught bharatanatyam and performed the dance form at weddings.