Most recently, ANIKA NONI ROSE was seen as Assistant District Attorney Wendy Scott-Carr, a surprise candidate running for office opposite Chris Noth’s Peter Florrick on The Good Wife for CBS. You may have also heard Rose as the voice of Princess Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. A self-motivated young woman with a big dream, Tiana was a new and special kind of Disney Princess, and led The Princess and the Frog to three Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Feature and two Best Songs.

Rose recently starred in Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, a series of 20 poems based on the stage play by Ntozake Shange, referred to collectively as a “choreopoem.” Her character, Yasmine, is the owner and dance instructor at Yasmine’s Rhythm dance studio whose horrific encounter on a date leaves her a changed person. The film was released nationwide on November 5, 2010.

She made her first trip to Africa with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, portraying secretary Mma. Makutsi. Shot entirely on location in Botswana, it was director Anthony Minghella’s last project and aired on both HBO and the BBC. It also received the prestigious Peabody Award.

A Tony-winner, Rose trained at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. Shortly after moving to New York, she transitioned to the Broadway stage with a featured role in Footloose. She later garnered an Obie in Off-Broadway’s Laura Nyro retrospective, Eli’s Comin’, and earned a Lucille Lortel award for her portrayal of Emmie Thibodeaux in Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change, which went from The Public Theater to Broadway. For this, she also received a Tony, the Theater World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, and a Drama Desk nomination. She went with the play to the West Coast, where she won both the Los Angeles Critics’ Circle Award and an Ovation Award.

Her next stop was the big screen, playing Lorrell Robinson in Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls. The movie received an AFI ensemble award, and was nominated for a SAG award. Rose herself received a nomination for an NAACP award and both the soundtrack and the song “Patience” were nominated for Oscars.

From there, it was back to Broadway, where Rose starred as Maggie in Debbie Allen’s acclaimed 2008 production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Rose has sung all over the world, including the 79th Annual Academy Awards, and at The Vatican and Carnegie Hall. She made her solo cabaret debut in New York as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series last month. She recently received an honorary doctorate from Florida A&M University.