The best Cynthia Erivo movies and TV shows feature a strong mix of releases that take advantage of her singing and acting talents. Erivo got her start as a singer and she worked in theater before she ever took on roles in movies and TV shows. It was her early role as Celie Harris in The Color Purple that earned her first major attention, and it even led to her Broadway debut when she took the role to the revival in 2015.

This led to her film debut in 2016 when she signed on for the neo-noir thriller Bad Times at the El Royale as part of that film’s ensemble cast. This led to even bigger things, such as the Steve McQueen-directed film Widows, and then enjoyed her breakout in the historical drama Harriet, where she played abolitionist Harriet Tubman. However, she enjoyed her biggest breakthrough when she signed on to play Elphaba in the movie version of Wicked, a role that has earned her numerous awards recognition.

10 Drift (2023)

Jacqueline Kamara

In 2023, Cynthia Erivo appeared in the movie Drift. This was a big film for her, as she was also a producer on the project. The story follows Jacqueline Kamara, a Liberian refugee, who flees to a Greek island. When there, she becomes friends with an American tour guide (Alia Shawkat) and has to cope with her past. Based on the novel A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik, Erivo stars as Jacqueline.

Drift premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 before receiving a limited theatrical release. The film has a great score on Rotten Tomatoes with a 75% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Noted critic David Fear from Rolling Stone wrote, “Erivo is not the only reason to see Drift. But the actor most certainly is the reason to see it ASAP.” Any fan of the actor should check out this little known project.

9 Genius (2021)

Aretha Franklin

In 2021, Cynthia Erivo took on the role of real-life musical legend Aretha Franklin. Genius is a biographical anthology drama that follows different historical figures each season. The first season was about Albert Einstein (Geoffrey Rush), the second was about Pablo Picasso (Antonio Banderas), the third was about Aretha Franklin (Erivo), and the fourth was about Martin Luther King Jr (Kelvin Harrison Jr.).

However, it did receive a lot of praise for Erivo’s performance capturing the ion and poise of Aretha Franklin.

The third season with Erivo received a 71% Rotten Tomatoes score, beneath both the first and fourth seasons. However, much of the criticism went toward the complaints from Aretha Franklin’s family, who said they were not consulted on her story. However, it did receive a lot of praise for Erivo’s performance capturing the ion and poise of Aretha Franklin. Erivo received a Golden Gloves and Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the series.

8 Chaos Walking (2021)

Hildy

In 2021, Cynthia Erivo ed the cast of the young adult sci-fi adaptation of Chaos Walking, the book series by Patrick Ness. This was expected to be a new franchise and it had two major stars as the leads, but it ended up with disappointing box office totals and lower critical ratings. Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Homecoming) stars as Todd, a young man who lives on a planet where there are no women. This all changes when a woman named Viola (Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) lands on the planet.

She soon has to fight for her life as the men on the planet set out to kill her, while Todd tries to protect her. Todd and Viola find a community where there are men, women, and children, and this is where they find Erivo’s Hildy, who is part of the community and knows that these two newcomers will bring danger following them. While critics panned the film, fans were more forgiving and awarded it a 71% positive Popcornmeter rating.

7 Pinocchio (2022)

The Blue Fairy

There were two new versions of Pinocchio that came out in the 2020s. The more critically acclaimed of the films was Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion version. However, there was a live-action version that came out in 2022 from acclaimed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. In this movie, Tom Hanks played Geppetto while Benjamin Evan Ainsworth played Pinocchio. As a musical, it was also necessary to bring in people who could sing, and that is where Cynthia Erivo came in.

Erivo played the Blue Fairy. In the movie and the fairy tale on which it is based, the Blue Fairy is who comes to Pinocchio after he comes to life and tells him that he has to be brave, truthful, and selfless in order to one day become a real boy. It is Erivo who sings “When You Wish Upon a Star” in the movie. Sadly, despite the great singing and technical expertise, the film was panned by critics after it ended up released as a Disney+ original film.

6 Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)

Odette Raine

Cynthia Erivo signed on for the movie Luther: The Fallen Sun, based on the television series Luther. The original series focused on Idris Elba’s Luther, a police detective who has to bring down criminals while sharing a complicated relationship with a killer named Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson). In the movie, Luther is back and is trying to stop a wealthy serial killer (Andy Serkis) who seems almost untouchable. The film ended up as a Netflix original.

John Luther is arrested and imprisoned when the serial killer exposes all his past crimes committed as a police officer. Cynthia Erivo stars as Odette Raine, the current head of the Serious and Serial Crime Unit (SSCU). She is busy hunting down the serial killer as well as Luther, when he escapes from prison to try to stop the serial killer. She ends up partnering with Luther to bring down Robey in a movie that received mostly good reviews as a nice follow-up to the series.

5 Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)

Darlene Sweet

Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) directed the very fun neo-noir mystery Bad Times at the El Royale. The movie sees a group of six strangers at the El Royale on the California-Vegas border who all have secrets. This includes Catholic priest Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm), and hippie Emily Summerspring (Cailee Spaeny).

She was also nominated at the Saturn Awards, where the film won Best Thriller Film.

Soon, everyone realizes there is danger at the El Royale that ties into a murder from a decade before. The film came after Erivo’s breakout performance in Widows and she delivered a great performance in the film, with her monologue at the end considered a highlight of the film. For her performance, Erivo was nominated for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female. She was also nominated at the Saturn Awards, where the film won Best Thriller Film.

4 The Outsider (2020)

Holly Gibney

Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Outsider is a supernatural psychological thriller miniseries that aired on HBO. In the show, a monstrous creature that can turn itself into a doppelgänger of anyone it sees murders a child while looking like a beloved little league baseball coach (Jason Bateman). It is then up to a detective (Ben Mendelsohn) to figure out why this beloved community member committed the crime and, if not, who did.

Cynthia Erivo stars in the series as Holly Gibney, a private detective with a savant-like memory and perceptive capabilities who is called in to help consult on the case. This wasn’t Holly’s first time appearing in a TV series, as she was previously played by Justine Lupe in Mr. Mercedes. However, Erivo was perfect in the role and brought the beloved Stephen King character to life with all her eccentricities.

3 Harriet (2019)

Harriet Tubman

In 2019, Cynthia Erivo took on the lead role in the movie Harriet, where she played abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her work in helping to run the Underground Railroad where she helped enslaved people reach freedom. The movie followed Harriet as she suffered a head injury as a child and then had visions as an adult, where she believed that God was personally speaking to her and leading her to save people.

Harriet was a minor box office success on top of the positive reviews, and it ended up earning Erivo her first Oscar nomination.

The film received mostly positive reviews, with most of the praise going to Erivo’s performance in the lead. Harriet was a minor box office success on top of the positive reviews, and it ended up earning Erivo her first Oscar nomination, as she was nominated for Best Actress. She also was nominated for a Grammy for her performance of the song “Stand Up” alongside Joshuah Brian Campbell.

2 Widows (2018)

Belle

Cynthia Erivo was part of the ensemble cast of the 2018 Steve McQueen neo-noir heist thriller Widows. While she was working alongside Viola Daivs, Michelle Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Debicki, she held her own and proved that she had reached their level of work on this film. The movie follows a group of widows who are told to pay back the money their husbands stole from a mob boss before they died.

The film was a small box office success, but it scored a high 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the entire cast was praised. It reached the top 10 lists of many critics in 2018 and was nominated for several awards at the end of the year. While most of the awards recognition went to Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki, Erivo held her own and proved that she was ready to step up to leading roles, which she did with Harriet the next year.

1 Wicked (2024)

Elphaba Thropp

Cynthia Erivo finally achieved superstardom in 2024. In that year, she starred Elphaba Thropp, who is also known in history as The Wicked Witch of the West. Wicked, the movie based on the Broadway play that was based on the Gregory Maguire novel, tells the story of how Elphaba and Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande) were once friends in school, and then it tells how the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) turned her into a villain.

The movie was a huge success, becoming the highest-grossing movie based on a Broadway musical, and critics praised the movie with a high 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a lot of critics praising Erivo’s performance. Wicked earned four Golden Globe nominations, with both Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande picking up nominations (Erivo for Best Actress) and it is expected to be a contender at the Academy Awards as well.