Stephanie St. James

Stephanie St. James is an American actress, singer, mentor, and endometriosis advocate who appeared on Broadway between 1998 and 2007. Born to a father of Guyanese descent and a Russian-born Jewish mother whose parents were Holocaust survivors, St. James has a notably international family background. Her maternal grandmother, Sofia Katz, was one of only two Jewish survivors from the entire Jewish community of Budslav, Poland, and her maternal grandfather, David Kopelewicz, was a decorated partisan commander credited with saving hundreds of Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Her parents met in Jerusalem, Israel.

St. James grew up in the Northern California Bay Area and graduated from Santa Rosa High School. She trained with the San Francisco and Marin Ballets before enrolling at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. During her final semester there, she secured her first professional role in the European Tour of Fame the musical. She subsequently originated the role of Rusty in the first national tour of Footloose the musical, a credit that also appears in her verified Broadway performance record. Her additional theater credits include Gary Marshall's Happy Days, Jesus Christ Superstar, Celtic Fusion, Little Shop of Horrors, and Grease. For Celtic Fusion, she recorded the production's soundtrack in Edinburgh, Scotland.

St. James starred in The Color Purple on Broadway, a musical adapted from Alice Walker's novel of the same name and produced by Oprah Winfrey. During the Chicago engagement of that production at the Cadillac Palace Theater, her performance was attended by President Barack Obama. Her portrayal of Squeak in The Color Purple earned her a 2008 NAACP Theater Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2010, she received the San Francisco Broadway World Fan Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical Local for her performance as Mimi in Rent at the 6th Street Playhouse in Northern California.

As a recording artist working under the alias St. James, she released two independent projects, The St. James Experience and What Did I Do?, which included cover recordings of ABBA's "Money, Money, Money" and John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane," both of which became popular singles internationally.

St. James owns AFP, a children's entertainment company headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, that provides character appearances for corporate events and parties. In the fall of 2010, she launched The St. James Acting Studio in Miami, Florida, offering training in film, television, commercials, musical theater, and voice-overs. Students from the studio have gone on to appear in Broadway productions including Hamilton, the film Rock of Ages, and the television series Magic City and Burn Notice. In 2011, the Film Recording Entertainment Council honored her with the FREC Award for Acting Coach of South Florida.

After experiencing symptoms for more than a decade, St. James was officially diagnosed with endometriosis in 2003 and has since undergone six major surgeries related to the disease. In 2007 she publicly disclosed her diagnosis to raise awareness, becoming one of the first celebrity women with endometriosis to do so, and has continued to advocate on behalf of women affected by the condition worldwide.