Anika Noni Rose

A self motivated young woman with a big dream, you most recently heard Anika Noni Rose as the voice of "Princess Tiana" in Disney's animated hit movie, The Princess & The Frog. A new and special kind of Disney Princess, Rose has led The Princess & The Frog to three Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Feature and Best Song ("Almost There").

In 2008, Rose made her first trip to Africa to film 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 HBO and the BBC.

A Tony Award winner, Rose trained at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater. A couple of months after moving to New York, she transitioned to the Broadway stage with a featured role in "Footloose." She later garnered an Obie Award with 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 in the spring of 2004. For this, she also received a Tony Award for featured actress in a musical, the Theater World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award, and a Drama Desk nomination. Rose took the play to the west coast where she picked up 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 she starred as "Maggie" in Deborah Allen's acclaimed production of "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof."

Rose has sung all over the world, including at the 79th Annual Academy Awards and at the Vatican where she performed in Leonard Bernstein's Mass.