Ariana DeBose
Birthdate: Jan 25, 1991
Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Ariana DeBose (birthname: Ariana Nicole DeBose) made history as the first queer woman of color to win an Academy Award when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in West Side Story (2021). DeBose belongs to that elite class of performers (in the tradition of Fred Astaire, Shirley MacLaine, and Rita Moreno) who can act, sing, and dance.
DeBose’s debut big-screen appearance was as part of the ensemble in the movie version of Stephen Sondheim’s and George Furth’s musical, Company (2011), directed by Lonny Price, and co-starring Neil Patrick Harris, Martha Plimpton, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Patti LuPone, and Christina Hendricks. Ariana DeBose then had her first starring role in writer-director Sam Zalutsky’s little-seen indie drama, Seaside (2018).
DeBose scored a triple role (The Bullet, Martha, and in the ensemble) in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s and Jeffrey Seller’s game-changing musical, Hamilton (2020), directed for the camera by Thomas Kail, and co-starring Leslie Odom Jr., Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, and Jonathan Groff. DeBose had a relatively larger role with a starry ensemble in producer-director Ryan Murphy’s movie version of the Matthew Solar/Chad Beguelin/Bob Martin musical, Prom (2020), with Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Keegan-Michael Key, Tracy Ullman, Mary Kay Place, and Kerry Washington, and which was released in a brief theatrical window before streaming on Netflix.
Ariana DeBose’s breakthrough role arrived years into her film career—though in only her first major role in a major wide-release studio production—when she took on the role of Anita in director Steven Spielberg’s and writer Tony Kushner’s new version of West Side Story (2021) and won the same Oscar won sixty years earlier by Rita Moreno in the same role. DeBose’s cast mates included Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, David Alvarez, Mike Faust, Moreno, Brian d’Arcy James, and Corey Stoll, and though Spielberg’s movie received much praise, it was one of his box-office bombs with a $76 million global return on a $100 million budget.
In a major shift, DeBose then opted for a sci-fi movie project, I.S.S. (2023), directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and co-starring Chris Messina, Pilou Asbæk, John Gallagher Jr., and Maria Mashkova, and released by Bleeker Street. DeBose returned to the musical mode in her first starring role (and first voice role in an animated project) in a studio movie with Disney’s Wish (2023), co-directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, and co-starring Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, and Angelique Cabral.
Ariana DeBose joined the cast of director-producer Matthew Vaughn’s $200-million spy comedy, Argylle (2024), including Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Dua Lipa, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson, and released by Universal Pictures and Apple Original Films. DeBose co-starred in her first Marvel movie and the fifth Spider-Man Universe movie, Kraven the Hunter (2024), starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Christopher Abbott, and Alessandro, and directed by J.C. Chandor.
Ariana DeBose next co-starred with Ke Huy Quan and Daniel Wu in the Jonathan Eusebio-directed comedy for Universal Pictures, Love Hurts (2025), with Sean Astin, Mustafa Shakir, and Marshawn Lynch, and then DeBose played Cordelia in director/writer Bernard Rose’s King Lear film adaptation, Lear Rex (date to be announced), starring Al Pacino as Lear, with Jessica Chastain, Rachel Brosnahan, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Chris Messina, Danny Huston, Ted Levine, and Stephen Dorff.
DeBose played opposite Rose Byrne in the Stephanie Laing-directed drama, Tow (date to be announced), with Simon Rex, Octavia Spencer, Demi Lovato, Corbin Bernstein, and Katie Lee Hill, followed by DeBose co-starring with Amanda Seyfried, Chloe Fineman, Liza Koshy, and Megan Stalter in the comedy, My Ex-Friend’s Wedding (date to be announced), directed and co-written by Kay Cannon, with writer Taylor Jenkins Reid and Ashley Rodger.
Personal Details
Ariana DeBose was born and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina by her mother Gina DeBose (teacher), and father; her family heritage includes white, Puerto Rican, Black, and Italian. DeBose identifies as queer and came out to her grandparents in 2015. DeBose has been in a relationship with theater props manager, Jill Johnson; she is in a relationship with costume designer/university professor, Sue Makkoo.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2025 | Love Hurts
Love Hurts
A realtor is pulled back into the life he left behind after his former partner-in-crime resurfaces with an ominous message. With his crime-lord brother also on his trail, he must confront his past and the history he never fully buried.
Previous (5)
- 2024 | Kraven the HunterasCalypso
Kraven the Hunter
Kraven's complex relationship with his ruthless father, Nikolai Kravinoff, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
- 2024 |
- 2024 |
- 2023 |
- 2021 | West Side StoryasAnita
West Side Story
An adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.
Some Facts About Ariana DeBose
Theatre Lover: Ariana DeBose established her name and notable acting-singing-dancing talent on Broadway long before her significant screen roles, namely in Bring It On: The Musical (2011), Motown: The Musical (2013), a revival of Pippin (2014), the original production of Hamilton (2015), A Bronx Tale (2016), and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (2018), for which she was nominated for the Tony for best-featured actress.
First: DeBose was the first queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar.
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