Ariana DeBose

Ariana DeBose (born January 25, 1991, Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.) is an American actress considered by many to be a “triple threat”—skilled in acting, dancing, and singing. Her notable credits include the original Broadway run of the musical Hamilton (2015–16), Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the classic musical West Side Story (2021), the musical comedy television series Schmigadoon! (2021– ), and Disney’s animated musical film Wish (2023).

Early life

DeBose was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and grew up in nearby Raleigh and Wake Forest, raised by her single mother, Gina DeBose, a teacher. In a 2016 interview with The Great Discontent magazine, DeBose discussed her inspiration for pursuing a career in the performing arts:

I was surrounded by creativity.…My grandma made sure I got into dance. She often took me to festivals; I remember going to the Azalea Festival and being exposed to different kinds of art and music. I didn’t just listen to Whitney Houston—I listened to Dinah Washington, too.

DeBose started taking dance classes when she was 3 years old, and she won a dance contest at age 15. In her youth she aspired to become a backup dancer but also discovered an early love of acting, appearing in local stage productions such as Les Misérables. At age 18, while still in high school, DeBose made her small-screen debut as a contestant on the dancing competition show So You Think You Can Dance (2009). Although she reached the show’s top 20 (the core group of contestants), DeBose was eliminated in the first round. After graduating from high school, DeBose briefly studied musical theater at Western Carolina University, where she appeared in a production of A Chorus Line. She subsequently moved to New York City.

Career

In New York, DeBose began auditioning for and winning roles on the stage, including one in Bring It On: The Musical, a stage adaptation of the 2000 cheerleading film of the same name. DeBose toured nationally with the show and made her Broadway debut with it in 2012. The following year she appeared as Mary Wilson, a founding member of the Supremes, in Motown: The Musical as well as serving as an understudy for the role of Diana Ross. In 2013 she also appeared in a staging of the musical Pippin.

In 2015 DeBose joined the original cast of the smash-hit musical Hamilton as a member of the ensemble, and she remained on the show after it went from Off-Broadway to Broadway. DeBose played multiple parts, including the key role of “the Bullet,” a character who appears throughout the show but has no spoken lines and who moves across the stage in slow motion. In 2016 she joined the cast of A Bronx Tale: The Musical, playing the role of Jane. In 2018 she starred as Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, for which she received several award nominations, including for a Tony Awards.

DeBose appeared sporadically in television and film throughout the 2010s, but she had her big break as part of the cast of Steven Spielberg’s big-budget adaptation of the classic Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical West Side Story in 2021. She took on the role of Anita, girlfriend of the main antagonist, Sharks gang leader Bernardo Vasquez. In a 2022 interview with Deadline, DeBose talked about building up her confidence to play Anita:

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Steven [Spielberg] came in and gave me his trust and said, ‘run wild,’ and Tony [Kushner, screenwriter] gave me the words, and Justin [Peck] gave me the choreography, but then it really was up to me to make choices with all the tools that I’d spent all those years training to work with. So that’s when artistry and my craft come into play.

DeBose won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the film, and she became the first Afro-Latina, the first openly queer actor of color, and the first openly queer woman to win an Oscar for acting. She also won a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award. That same year she was listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.

In 2021 DeBose took on her biggest television role to date, a featured part on the musical parody series Schmigadoon! In the show’s first season she played the role of Emma Tate, a take on the character Marian Paroo from The Music Man, and in the second season she portrayed the Emcee, a parody of the Emcee role in Cabaret. DeBose also voiced the character of Asha, a teen who makes a wish on a magic star, in Disney’s animated fantasy musical film Wish (2023). In addition to her acting work, she hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in 2022, 2023, and 2024.