Phillipa Soo

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).

Phillipa Anne Soo (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.

Soo gained prominence for originating the role of Eliza Hamilton in the musical Hamilton on Broadway.

Soo attended Libertyville High School in suburban Chicago from 2004 to 2008.

She graduated from The Juilliard School's acting program in 2012.

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.

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).

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.

In 2013, she was cast in a small recurring role in the NBC television series Smash as the character Lexi.

After seeing her performance in Great Comet, director Thomas Kail and composer and writer Lin-Manuel Miranda asked her to take part in an early 2014 reading of the musical Hamilton, where she read the part of "Eliza" (Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton).

Soo played Eliza when the show premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater and on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

For her performance in Hamilton, Soo received a nomination for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical.

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.

Soo played her final performance in Hamilton on July 9, 2016, and the role of Eliza was taken over by Lexi Lawson.

Soo played the titular character in the pre-Broadway engagement of Amélie at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from December 2016 to January 2017.

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).

Soo reprised her role when Amélie began preview performances on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on March 9, 2017, opening officially on April 3.

The show closed on May 21, 2017.

That same year Soo returned on Broadway as Rebecca in The Parisian Woman, an original play by Beau Willimon.

The production began preview performances at the Hudson Theatre on November 7, 2017, and opened on November 30 for a limited run through March 11, 2018.

In 2022, Soo portrayed suffragist Inez Milholland in Shaina Taub's musical Suffs.

The production premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theatre to positive reviews.

Entertainment Weekly declared, "Soo, best known for originating the role of Eliza Schuyler in Hamilton, grounds the story with her poignant voice, infusing Inez Milholland with emotion and vulnerability so striking, you're reminded of why she's so closely associated with another woman who wrote herself into the narrative."

The production opened on April 6 and ran a limited run through May 29, 2022.

On May 26, it was announced Soo would play Cinderella in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the St. James Theatre.

Soo starred opposite Sara Bareilles, Brian D'Arcy James, Gavin Creel, Joshua Henry, Patina Miller, and Cheyenne Jackson.

She received acclaim for her role, with The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney describing her performance as, "one of her best roles since her shattering performance as the original Eliza in Hamilton."

She remained with the show through September 4, 2022.

Soo would go on to win her second Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for her work in Into the Woods.

On August 2, 2022, it was announced that Soo would play Sarah Brown in a revival of Guys and Dolls at The Kennedy Center.

The cast included Soo's husband, Steven Pasquale, as well as James Monroe Iglehart, Jessie Mueller, Rachel Dratch, and Kevin Chamberlin.

In The New York Times article on the Best Theatre of 2022, Scott Heller of praised Soo as "a gift to the musical theater" and that in that year she "showed more sides to her talent than ever".

On November 1, 2022 it was announced Soo would star as Guenevere in the Broadway revival of Camelot opposite Andrew Burnap, and Jordan Donica.

The production debuted in March 2023 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center with Bartlett Sher as director and Aaron Sorkin with a revised book.

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 has appeared in the films Over the Moon, The Broken Hearts Gallery (both 2020), and Tick, Tick...Boom! (2021).