Career
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 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.
Rose's debut in movies came with the 1999 film King of the Bingo Game as "film noir female". In 2003, she played the role of Kaya in From Justin to Kelly, in 2004 she performed in Temptation, followed by Surviving Christmas as a singer in the choir. In 2006, Rose starred in Dreamgirls as Lorrell Robinson with Beyoncé Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. Rose appeared in the films Just Add Water, Razor, and Disney's 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog, as the voice of the lead character Tiana; the character is Disney's first African-American princess. Rose hosted a hometown screening of The Princess and the Frog for children from the Charter Oak Cultural Center, a non-profit multi-cultural arts center that provides free after-school programs in Hartford, Connecticut. Rose also stars alongside Jill Scott in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency directed by Anthony Minghella.
In 2010, she played the role of Yasmine in the movie For Colored Girls. One critic described Rose's performance as "especially fierce".
In 2011, Rose played the role of Sara Tidwell in the A&E miniseries Bag of Bones based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.
Rose was named a Disney Legend on August 19, 2011.
In 2012, Rose guest-starred as a voice actor in "Gone Abie Gone", episode 3, season 24 of The Simpsons, playing Abe Simpson's second wife, Rita LaFleur. The episode originally aired November 11.
Read more about this topic: Anika Noni Rose
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)