Raleigh’s Ariana DeBose is one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022
Ariana DeBose, the critically-acclaimed actress, singer and dancer from North Carolina, has been named among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022.
The list of Time’s noteworthy people that featured DeBose in the “Artist” category was released on Monday.
Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth sang DeBose’s praises on Time’s website, designating her as “a quadruple threat: she’s not only a dancer, an actress, and a singer, but also kind.”
“Ariana’s as authentic as they come, and whatever she does next, I will be cheering from fifth-row center,” wrote Chenoweth. “They’ll have to throw me out for screaming for her and clapping so loud. So go for it, baby girl!”
Both DeBose and Chenoweth were recently cast together in “Schmigadoon!” a musical comedy TV series on Apple+. She praised DeBose for winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role of Anita in “West Side Story,” calling her a “trailblazer.”
The list includes a range of entrepreneurs, elected officials, business people and leaders. It ranges from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and incoming Supreme Court justce Ketanji Brown Jackson to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Others in the Artist category include Simu Liu, star of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings;” actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Amanda Seyfried and “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Qunita Brunson.
DeBose, 31, grew up in Raleigh and Wake Forest.
The Time magazine feat is part of several of the artist’s accomplishments this year, which span the Academy Awards, television and the upcoming Tony Awards.
▪ The actress started the year off with a bang by hosting the first “Saturday Night Live” of 2022.
▪ DeBose also made history after she won the Oscar in the 2021 Steven Spielberg remake of the classic New York City musical, “West Side Story,” which depicts the city’s historic Puerto Rican community.
Of Puerto Rican and African American descent, DeBose is the first openly LGBTQ woman of color to win that accolade.
She won a slew of other awards, including the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Critics Choice Award and a Golden Globe.
▪ Most recently, it was announced that she will host the 75th annual Tony Awards on June 12.
DeBose was The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Month in March 2021.
