ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD

Actress Uzo Aduba has emerged as a breakout star for her impressive work in television and theater.

Aduba currently stars as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on the Netflix Original Series Orange is the New Black. The first season of the series premiered in July 2013 to critical praise. Daniel Feinberg from Hitfix said of her performance “…the character took a permanent place as an audience favorite, delivering one priceless and revelatory moment after another.”  For her work on Orange is the New Black, Aduba won the 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series as well as the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series.

Aduba made her television debut in 2012 on the hit CBS show Blue Bloods. Before starring on television, Aduba made her Broadway debut in Coram Boy in 2007 followed by the hit musical revival of Godspell in 2011. She discovered her talent for singing at a very early age and became a classical music major at the Boston University School of Fine Arts. Work in theatre quickly followed with critically acclaimed performances at both The Huntington Theatre in Boston and A.R.T. where, under the direction of Dianne Paulus, she won the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for Best Actress in a Play. Aduba was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her work in The Olney Theater and Kennedy Center production of Translations of Xhosa. Other theater credits include Dessa Rose at the New Repertory Theatre, Turnando: Rumble for the at the Papermill Playhouse, and Abyssinia at the Goodspeed Theatre. Past films include the independent shorts Over There and Notes.

An Opening Act Artistic Advisory Board member since 2014, Uzo says, “After participating in a Master Class with Opening Act, I found myself so impressed by the level of excitement from the students towards the organization and the level of passion coming from the educators. Opening Act’s determination to make a difference in these young lives through artistic expression is what has committed me to this organization. I believe in their mission and want nothing more than to be an aid on the beautiful road Opening Act has already paved.”

Uzo graced the Broadway stage in Opening Act’s 2014 Play Reading of Marcus Gardley’s dance of the holy ghosts: a play on memory.

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