Anika Noni Rose

Anika Noni Rose (born September 6, 1972) is an American actress and singer known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of Caroline, or Change and her starring role as Lorrell Robinson in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. She also voiced Tiana, Disney’s first African-American princess in Walt Disney Pictures\' 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog. In 2014, Rose played the role of Beneatha Younger in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She was named a Disney Legend in 2011.\n', ' Rose was born in Bloomfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Claudia and John Rose, a corporate counsel. She began her acting career in high school, appearing in a school production during her freshman year. She then attended Florida A&M University where she earned a Bachelor\'s Degree in theatre, and started studying drama at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, California.\n', ' Rose moved to New York without a job. After three months, she secured the role of Rusty in Broadway\'s Footloose. She followed Footloose with numerous workshops and two musicals using pre-existing song catalogs, Eli\'s Comin\' Off-Broadway and Me and Mrs. Jones with Lou Rawls in Philadelphia. Both of the full-scale tuners ["tuner": theatre parlance introduced by Variety trade newspaper.] were rumored for transfers, but neither made it anywhere after their limited engagements ended. Rose\'s big Broadway break was getting cast as Emmie Thibodeaux in Caroline, or Change. In 2004, she was awarded the Theatre World Award, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress, and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Caroline, or Change. In 2014, Rose returned to Broadway in a revival of A Raisin in the Sun, receiving a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.\n', '