Anika Noni Rose

Rose moved to New York without a job. After three months, she played 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[2] and Me and Mrs. Jones with Lou Rawls in Philadelphia. Both of the full-scale tuners ["tuner": theatre parlance introduced by Variety trade newspaper.[3]] 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. In 2014, Rose returned to Broadway in a revival of A Raisin in the Sun, receiving a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.[4]

After her film debut, King of the Bingo Game, she played the role of Kaya in From Justin to Kelly in 2003 and she performed in Temptation in 2004, 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 Waterand Razor.

Rose also starred alongside Jill Scott in The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency directed by Anthony Minghella.[5]

Anika Noni Rose is best known for her role in 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 also said at the time, “Not only is [Tiana] the first black princess, she’s the first American princess. So, the scope and the significance is larger than people even realize.”[6] Rose added that she hoped her role in the film would help affirm young brown-skinned children by seeing someone who looks like them in a Disney film. The film being released in 2009, the same year that Barack Obama and Michelle Obama entered the White House was completely coincidental, according to the creators. But several commentators noted how the coincidence reinforced the positive portrayal of African-Americans.[7][8]

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.[9] Rose's performance in the film garnered one nomination for an NAACP Image Award and three nominations for the Black Reel Awards. She won the Black Reel Award for Best Outstanding Voice Performance.

Rose was named a Disney Legend on August 19, 2011.[10] Rose said of the honor, "I always dreamed of being a voice in a Disney movie, but even in those dreams, I never once dreamed of being a princess... I feel like what an honor that this is and how the dream comes true, bigger and stronger than I had even imagined it."[11]

In June 2020, Disney announced that they would be reworking their flume ride Splash Mountain with characters from The Princess and the Frog. Anika Noni Rose said, "It's thrilling. People are amped and ready. I think it's awesome, particularly now, to be reinvigorating her story." Disney said the ride will take place immediately after the end of the film, and it will feature a Mardi Gras party. Rose also added that she would love for Disney to create a Tiana's Palace Restaurant at the theme parks. "I've been looking forward to a Tiana's Palace for years... I have dreams of them partnering with Café du Monde [a New Orleans based restaurant] on some real deal beignets, having some fantastic shrimp and grits and king cake during Mardi Gras season. And the occasional second line through the joint. Basically all the things I love!"[12][13][14]

In 2010, she played the role of Yasmine in the movie For Colored Girls. One critic described Rose's performance as "especially fierce".[15] From 2010 to 2013, Rose had a guest-starring role in the legal TV drama The Good Wife. She played the role of Sara Tidwell in the A&E miniseries Bag of Bones in 2011, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.[16]

In 2012, she guest-starred in "Gone Abie Gone", episode 3, season 24 of The Simpsons, voicing Abe Simpson's second wife, Rita LaFleur. The episode originally aired November 11 of that year.

Rose played the adult "Kizzy" in two episodes of television's Roots, an adaptation of the novel by Alex Haley and remake of the 1977 miniseries. Critic Alan Sepinwall, in suggesting Emmy nominees to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, called her "one of the best parts of the outstanding Roots ensemble."[17] She has a role in the Starz series Power and the leading role in the 2017 BET drama The Quad.

During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown of 2020, Rose created a weekly series, where she read bedtime stories to small children in order to help ease their fear during the lockdown. Rose said, "I love reading to kids, and I wanted to give our little people something soft and soothing in this very jarring moment in time. I thought a bedtime story would be the perfect way. I can give my voice to the ones who know it best, without anyone leaving home."[18] She also said that she wanted to help children act silly, use their imaginations, and find a love of books that Rose said she had as a child.[19][20] As one of the stories in the series, Rose chose the Princess and the Frog book "Tiana's Growing Experiment."[21]

In 2020, Anika Noni Rose starred in the Netflix musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey playing Jessica Jangle.[22] Noni Rose applauded the film's portrayal of black and brown professionals in an English Victorian setting.[23]