Reviews of West Side Story, which hit theaters nationwide back in December 2021, were overwhelmingly positive, but critics praised DeBose in particular as an electric performer who delivers “a pure dopamine rush on the dance floor and a small revelation off of it.” Ready to get to know this triple-threat singing-acting-dancing superstar and Oscar winner? Keep reading to find out more about her performance as Anita in the new West Side Story, plus everything else fans will want to know about the electrifying Ariana DeBose.
Who is Ariana DeBose in West Side Story?
DeBose plays Anita in West Side Story, the role played by Chita Rivera in the original Broadway production and Rita Moreno in the 1961 movie. DeBose told Good Morning America that she remembers the first time she saw the original movie. “I was sitting in my grandmother’s living room," she explained. “I think I was 7 or 8, watching the woman in the purple dress [Moreno] dance, and I was like, ‘I want to do that’ … it was very visceral for me.” Moreno appears in Spielberg’s West Side Story as a new character, Valentina, the widow of shopkeeper Doc. (In the 1961 film, Doc owned the candy store where the Sharks and Jets hung out.) DeBose admits to being completely overwhelmed meeting Moreno, “but she was so gracious with me, and she said, ‘I will tell you anything you want to know.’ And I said, ‘I want to know anything you want to tell me.’ And we just sort of had an open dialogue, and I’m grateful for her support." For her part, Moreno calls DeBose “a ferocious dancer. She’s fabulous.” DeBose has also revealed that when Spielberg called to ask her to play the part, she was sitting in a nail salon.
Who did Ariana DeBose play in Hamilton?
DeBose not only appeared in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton; she also participated in the filmed stage production available on Disney+ as a member of the ensemble; however, she was also given a secret part to play. “Hamilfans” know her as “The Bullet,” a personification of death that shadows Alexander Hamilton throughout the show and surfaces at key moments. “The Bullet” is the first character to die on stage, as a spy outed by a British soldier. She’s later seen with John Laurens in “Yorktown,” killing a British soldier; fans have noted that she shakes hands with Laurens, thereby marking him as the next to die. In Act II, she’s the one who tells Hamilton’s son Philip where to find George Eaker, which sets up the duel in which Philip dies. (It’s even been pointed out that, in that scene, Philip is quite literally flirting with Death). “I didn’t know I was going to be ‘The Bullet’ until one day in rehearsal,” DeBose said in 2016. “Andy [Blankenbuehler, Hamilton’s choreographer] said, ‘Ari, come here and trace this line—you’re going to make the bullet miss Hamilton.’ [At the beginning of “Stay Alive”] That was the first phase of creating the character of ‘The Bullet.’ He said, ‘You do it twice: the first time, the bullet misses him, and the second time, it doesn’t.’”
How old is Ariana DeBose?
DeBose was born on January 25, 1991, in North Carolina. Her father is Afro-Puerto Rican and her mother is white, and DeBose eschews identifying as any one label in response to working in an industry that often reduces characters and people to single identities. Speaking to Gay Times in 2018, DeBose explained, “I work in a business that constantly tries to put me in a box, like ‘You’re just a dancer’ or ‘You’re just this or that’. Also, my mother is white, my father was Puerto Rican, so I don’t identify with any specific ethnicity either. When I walk down the street, I present as black and I do have African-American lineage, but I’m also part-Italian.”
What was Ariana DeBose’s Broadway debut?
DeBose debuted on Broadway in 2012’s Bring It On, a musical loosely based on the 2000 movie about rival cheerleader troupes starring Gabrielle Union and Kirsten Dunst. Lin-Manuel Miranda (who would go on to create Hamilton) co-wrote the music and lyrics with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. DeBose was also in the cast when the show made its pre-Broadway debut in Atlanta in 2011 and went on its national tour before making it to Broadway. In an interview with Backstage, DeBose admits she was unprepared for her audition for Bring It On. “I worked so hard on Nautica’s rap, that I forgot there was another song,” DeBose recalls. “It was Nautica’s solo part in ‘Ain’t No Thing,’ which, not for nothing, for someone who didn’t sing all the time, was a very hard song! I knew, like, the first two lyrics and so I started humming what I thought the notes were. They all just stared at me. And Alex [Lacamoire] said, ‘OK, so, we want you to come back, but I think maybe learn this song.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, sir. Thank you for your time.’ I think they probably were like, Well, there’s Nautica. I was accidentally funny, and that was a quality she needed.”
Who is Ariana DeBose in Bring It On?
DeBose played Nautica, a member of Jackson High’s dance crew, Queen Bees. Whereas in the movie, there are two established cheerleading teams at rival high schools, in the musical a school redistricting sends a cheerleader aspiring to be captain to a school without a cheerleading squad. Nautica is a role specific to the musical.
What other Broadway musicals has Ariana DeBose appeared in?
DeBose has appeared in several musicals both on and off Broadway. She’s been part of the ensemble in Pippin and Company, played Mary Wilson in Motown while understudying the part of Diana Ross, and was Eponine in a regional production of Les Miserables. Post-Hamilton, DeBose played Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, both at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2017 and in the Broadway production in 2018. She was nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony Award in 2018 for the role.
What TV shows and movies has Ariana DeBose been in?
DeBose had a guest spot on CBS show Blue Bloods in 2016, and more recently appeared in Ryan Murphy’s 2020 Netflix adaptation of Broadway musical The Prom. In that movie, which also stars Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, DeBose plays Alyssa Greene, a popular cheerleader secretly dating openly gay Emma, who gets banned from the school prom after she declares her intention to bring a girl as her date. DeBose herself identifies as queer and says the role of Alyssa was especially meaningful: “Never in a million years did I think I was going to work on a feature film with Ryan Murphy,let alone have the honor of telling a story about a young queer brown girl.” DeBose can also be seen in the Apple+ series Schmigadoon!, a parody/homage to the musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, starring Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong, Kristen Chenoweth, and Alan Cumming.
Can Ariana DeBose dance?
Obviously, yes. DeBose started training as a dancer at a very young age, and before she made it on Broadway she appeared on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, making it to the Top 20 in 2009.
Who is Ariana DeBose dating?
DeBose has openly identified as queer in several interviews, which prompted her to explicitly come out to her grandparents. She told LogoTV, “I never felt I had anything to hide, and I’ve never felt I had to claim a label. I’ve always been open about my views and about loving whomever I love. But when an outlet approached me in 2015 to talk about who was dating, I realized I hadn’t really had a coming out. So I called my grandparents, like, ‘Hey, just in case you hadn’t picked up the hint, I date both genders, I like what I like, but I do move toward women, so I hope you’re okay with that!’ DeBose had been dating Broadway props master Jill Johnson, whom she met during Motown, but currently appears to be single. Next, Look Back on West Side Story Star Rita Moreno’s Trailblazing Hollywood Career With Our Photo Gallery
