Daveed Diggs accepting the Tony for featured actor in a musical in 2016 for ‘Hamilton’
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
Amid a greater push for inclusiveness across the entertainment industry, the number of people of color who have won the top awards has received increased scrutiny, particularly following two years of #OscarsSoWhite.
While only 16 black actors have won Oscars (including Halle Berry as the lone black woman to win best actress), the Tony Awards has a more inclusive history. Trophies have been handed out to more than 50 black actors, starting in 1954 with Juanita Hall, recognized just seven years after the Tonys began.
Many of these inclusive Tony award winners also boast Oscar, Grammy or Emmy wins, like Viola Davis who has two Tonys, an Oscar and an Emmy. In recent years, as more diverse casts hit the stage, actors of color are seeing themselves represented in the winner’s circle with more frequency. In 2016, the year of Hamilton, all four musical performance awards went to black actors. However, in 2017, just five out of the Tonys’ 40 acting nominees were black and none of them won.
This year, Denzel Washington and LaChanze have a shot at winning their second acting Tonys: Washington for his performance in The Iceman Cometh and LaChanze for her work in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Other black actors nominated this year include Joshua Henry (Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel), Brian Tyree Henry (Lobby Hero), Noma Dumezweni (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Hailey Kilgore (Once on this Island), Ariana DeBose (Summer: The Donna Summer Musical) and Condola Rashad (Saint Joan).
Take a look below at 47 of the black actors* to win a Tony.
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