Lillias White

Lillias White is an American singer and actress of stage, television, and film best known for her Tony Award-winning performance in Cy Coleman's The Life, and understudying the role of Effie in the original production of Dreamgirls, which she then played the part in the ‘87 revival, for which she won a Drama League Award. A Brooklyn native, White has appeared on Broadway in Cats, Carrie, Once On This Island, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Chicago. In 1989 she won an Obie Award for her performance Off-Broadway in Romance in Hard Times. She was nominated for a Tony Award again in 2010 for her work as Funmilayo in Fela Kuti's Fela! Off-Broadway credits include: Dinah Was, Crowns, While I Yet Live by Billy Porter and Texas in Paris.

Concerts to benefit the Actors' Fund of America include Dreamgirls, Funny Girl, and Hair. She performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall and has toured and performed her one-woman show From Brooklyn to Broadway at the Kennedy Center's "Barbara Cook's Spotlight.”

Screen appearances include Sesame Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and NYPD Blue. White voiced Calliope in Disney’s Hercules, portrayed Evette in the film Pieces of April, and was in the Netflix series The Get Down. She also starred as Bloody Mary in South Pacific on PBS' Great Performances and the PBS documentary In Performance at the White House.