Phillipa Soo
Phillipa Anne Soo[a] (born May 31, 1990) is an American actress and singer. Known for her leading roles on Broadway primarily in musicals, she has received two Grammy Awards along with nominations for a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Phillipa Soo
Pippa Soo
- Actress
- singer
2012–present
Soo gained prominence for originating the role of Eliza Hamilton in the musical Hamilton on Broadway. She earned a nomination for the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical and received a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album that same year.[2][3][4] Her performance was captured in the Disney+ live stage recording of Hamilton which was released in 2020 for which she earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
Soo's other Broadway credits include the title role in Amélie (2017), Rebecca in The Parisian Woman (2017–18), Cinderella in Into the Woods (2022), and Guenevere in Camelot (2023). She also originated the role of Natasha Rostova in the off-Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (2012) as well as the role of suffragist Inez Milholland in Suffs (2022).
Soo has appeared in the films Over the Moon, The Broken Hearts Gallery (both 2020), and Tick, Tick...Boom! (2021).[5] In 2013, she made her television debut in the NBC series Smash and has since acted in Hulu miniseries Dopesick (2021) and the Apple TV+ series Shining Girls (2022).
Early life and education[edit]
Soo was born in Libertyville, Illinois. Her father is Chinese American (her paternal grandparents emigrated from China to the United States) and her mother is white. Her father is a doctor and her mother, who is from Southern Illinois, is involved in the arts.[6]
Soo attended Libertyville High School in suburban Chicago from 2004 to 2008.[7] She graduated from The Juilliard School's acting program in 2012.[8]
Acting career[edit]
Theater[edit]
After graduating from Juilliard in 2012, Soo was cast as Natasha Rostova in the Ars Nova production of Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, based on Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The show went on to transfer from Ars Nova to another Off-Broadway space, Kazino, a tent custom-built for the show.
Philanthropy[edit]
Inspired by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, the character she played in Hamilton, Soo started the Eliza Project initiative in partnership with Graham Windham, the first private orphanage in New York City that is mentioned in the last song at the end of the show. Through the program, Soo plans to provide students at the Graham School with acting, dancing, and rap workshops. According to Soo, the core mission of "The Eliza Project" is "to use the arts as a means of expression, as an outlet for personal experience, and to uplift the creative spirit."[27]
Personal life[edit]
Soo became engaged to actor Steven Pasquale in February 2016.[28] They married on September 24, 2017.[29] In 2019, the two starred opposite each other in an episode of The Code.[30] She has a dog named Billie, which she adopted for her 30th birthday in 2020.[31] She and her husband practice Transcendental Meditation.[32]