Adepero Oduye

Adepero Oduye gave a breakout performance as the star of Dee Rees' PARIAH (2011). In July 2013, Oduye made her Broadway debut opposite Cicely Tyson in the acclaimed revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful.  Oduye plays Thelma, a charming young woman who sits next to Carrie (Tyson) on the bus venture home and in one of the play's most captivating moments, joins her in song.  Oduye appears in The Trip to Bountiful at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre through mid-November.

After auditioning for a role as an extra, Oduye was tapped by writer/director Rees to star in the 2007 award-winning short and subsequent feature PARIAH. For her riveting performance as 'Alike,' a 17-year-old lesbian struggling with her identity, Oduye garnered nominations for Independent Spirit and NAACP Image awards for 'Best Female Lead.'  PARIAH also received the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, which is presented to the creative team of a film budgeted less than $500,000.

Oduye co-starred with Queen Latifah, Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard, Jill Scott and Condola Rashad in Lifetime's "Steel Magnolias" for director Kenny Leon and in Ava DuVernay's Miu Miu Women's tale The Door alongside Woodard and Gabrielle Union.

Oduye's theatre credits also include Danai Gurira's Eclipsed at the Yale Repertory Theatre, The Bluest Eye, at the Hartford Stage and Long Wharf Theatres and Fela! in the AEA workshop, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones.  On television, she made guest appearances on "Louie" and two "Law & Order" series.

River Road Entertainment