Shanice Williams (born July 9, 1996) is an American actress and singer best known for her performance as
Dorothy in the televised live performance of
NBC's ''
The Wiz Live!'' in December 2015.
Biography
She grew up in
Rahway, New Jersey. Her mother, Andrea Holmes, is a postal worker; and her father, Shelton Williams, is a security guard. Her cousin, Willis Williams, is an independent professional wrestler known as Ali Shabazz.
She attended
Rahway High School, where she performed as part of her school's drama program.
Williams studied briefly at the
American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles, but began her singing career in her grandfather's choir.
Her first major break was playing the role of Dorothy in ''
The Wiz Live!'', a televised program based on the 1975 Tony award-winning, Broadway theatrical production, ''
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"'', which reinvented American author
L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel, ''
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' as an African-American story. Williams was selected for the role through an open casting call when she was 18 years old. The production is a collaboration between the
NBC broadcast network and the theatrical division of
Cirque du Soleil.
In 2017 Williams starred in the award-winning
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
''Manic''.
For her role in this film, she won best actress in a
drama at the
New York Television Festival and best actress in a drama at SeriesFest.
In 2018 Williams made her
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
stage and
Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
debut in ''Little Rock'', a
play about the
Little Rock Nine. A year later, Williams was cast in the
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...
production of ''
Into the Woods'' as
Little Red Ridinghood, alongside Broadway stars
Sutton Foster,
Cheyenne Jackson,
Sierra Boggess
Sierra Marjory Boggess (; born May 20, 1982) is an American theater actress and singer.
She is best known for originating the role of Ariel in ''The Little Mermaid'' on Broadway, and for her multiple appearances as Christine Daaé in ''The Phant ...
,
Patina Miller and guest-starring
Whoopi Goldberg, which ran July 26–28.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Shanice
1996 births
American television actresses
21st-century American actresses
21st-century American singers
Actresses from New Jersey
21st-century African-American women singers
African-American actresses
Place of birth missing (living people)
People from Rahway, New Jersey
Rahway High School alumni
Living people
21st-century American women singers