Uzo Aduba

Uzoamaka Nwanneka "Uzo" Aduba is an American actress known for her performances across television, film, and theater. She gained wide recognition for her breakout role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black. Throughout her career, Aduba has earned three Emmy Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Notably, she is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award in both the comedy and drama categories for portraying the same role.

Aduba was born on February 10, 1981, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Igbo parents from Nigeria, and grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts. Raised in a sports-focused family, she was a promising figure skater as a child. She graduated from Medfield High School in 1999 and attended Boston University, where she studied classical voice and competed in track and field. Growing up in an all-white neighborhood, she drew strength and self-worth from her close relationship with her mother and her Nigerian heritage.

Aduba began her acting career on stage. In 2003, her performance in Translations of Xhosa at the Olney Theatre Center earned a nomination for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Resident Play. She subsequently appeared in productions of The Seven and made her Broadway debut in 2007 as Toby in Coram Boy. She later performed in the original revival cast of Godspell and appeared in Venice at The Public Theater. Aduba made her television debut in 2012 with a guest appearance as a nurse on Blue Bloods.

In 2013, Aduba achieved wide recognition after being cast as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren in Orange Is the New Black. Her performance won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Aduba made her film debut in the 2015 musical comedy-drama Pearly Gates, and went on to appear in films including American Pastoral, My Little Pony: The Movie, Candy Jar, Beats, Miss Virginia, National Champions, and Lightyear.

Following her breakout series, Aduba starred as politician Shirley Chisholm in the 2020 Hulu miniseries Mrs. America, winning an Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award. She was subsequently cast as Dr. Brooke Taylor in HBO's In Treatment, starred in Netflix's Painkiller in 2023, and led the 2025 series The Residence. On stage, she starred in Lynn Nottage's play Clyde's on Broadway in 2021, receiving a Tony Award nomination. In 2024, Viking Books published her memoir, The Road is Good: How a Mother's Strength Became Her Daughter's Purpose.

Aduba has also engaged in philanthropic and business endeavors. She received the Point Courage Award in 2017 for supporting the LGBT community, became Heifer International's first celebrity ambassador to Africa in 2018, and became a minority investor in Angel City FC in 2020. In her personal life, Aduba married filmmaker Robert Sweeting in a private 2020 ceremony in New York, and the couple welcomed a daughter in November 2023.