Personal details
Born:
- Birthday: 1981-02-10
- Born Place: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Uzo Aduba
Uzo Aduba is an American actress born Uzoamaka Nwanneka Aduba in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 10, 1981, to Igbo parents from Nigeria, and she grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts. She graduated from Boston University's School of Fine Arts, where she studied classical voice and also competed in track and field. Her early career was rooted in theatre, with a notable performance in Translations of Xhosa which earned her a Helen Hayes Award nomination. She made her Broadway debut in 2007 in Coram Boy and later appeared in the 2011 revival of Godspell.Aduba achieved widespread recognition for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). This performance earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards, making her one of only two actors to win an Emmy in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role. Her television debut came in 2012 with a minor role in Blue Bloods. Other significant television roles include portraying Shirley Chisholm in the Hulu miniseries Mrs. America, for which she won her third Emmy, and Dr. Brooke Taylor in the HBO series In Treatment. She is also set to star as detective Cordelia Cupp in the series The Residence and in the limited series Painkillers.Her film debut was in Pearly Gates (2015), and her filmography includes Tallulah (2016), American Pastoral (2016), Showing Roots (2016), My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Candy Jar (2018), and Miss Virginia (2019). Aduba married filmmaker Robert Sweeting in 2020, which she revealed in September 2021. The couple welcomed a baby girl in November 2023. She has also been an advocate for social causes, championing women's empowerment and LGBTQ+ rights, and was named Heifer International's first-ever celebrity ambassador to Africa in 2023. Her memoir, The Road is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became Her Daughter's Purpose, was published in 2024.
