Renée Elise Goldsberry

BFA ACTING/MUSIC THEATER, 1997

A graduate of CMU’s Music Theater program (BFA, 1993), Renée Elise Goldsberry is a multi-award winning actress, singer, and songwriter with a dynamic range of roles on stage and screen. Best known for her Tony and Grammy Award-winning performance as Angelica Schuyler in the musical “Hamilton,” she has also starred on Broadway in “The Color Purple,” “The Lion King,” and “Rent.” After graduating from CMU, she earned her Masters of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California in 1997. Renée started acting with a recurring role on “Ally McBeal,” appearing on 43 episodes. Since then, Renée has had a variety of roles across film and television, including “One Life to Live,” “She Hulk: Attorney at Law,” and the titular role in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Her performance in “Hamilton” was immortalized as a Disney+ live stage recording, which garnered her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. 

Renée can be seen on Netflix’s “Girls5Eva,” which has landed her two nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy Series at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards. Her documentary “Satisfied” about balancing the meteoric rise of “Hamilton,” while also balancing motherhood can be seen on Amazon Prime, and she will appear in the new CBS legal drama “Cupertino” (starring fellow CMU alum Rachel Keller) in Fall 2026.

CMU awarded Renée an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in May 2024.