Plenty of screen stars didn’t begin in front of a camera. They started on stages, where there are no second takes and the audience is only a few feet away.
That training shows up in the way they speak, move, and hold a scene. These four actresses all built their craft in theater before film made them household names.
Viola Davis
Viola Davis trained at the Juilliard School in New York and spent her early career on stage. She won her first Tony Award for her role in King Hedley II, a play by August Wilson. In 2010 she won a second Tony for the Broadway revival of Fences.
Her film breakthrough came with a short but powerful performance in Doubt in 2008, which earned her an Oscar nomination. She then reprised her Fences role on screen, directed by Denzel Washington. That performance won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2017 ceremony. More recently she led the historical epic The Woman King in 2022.
Cynthia Erivo
Cynthia Erivo studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She made her West End name in Sister Act the Musical, playing Deloris Van Cartier. Her Broadway debut came in The Color Purple, where she played Celie.
That performance won her a Tony Award in 2016. She moved into film with roles such as Harriet in 2019, which brought Oscar nominations for acting and for original song. In 2024 she starred as Elphaba in the film adaptation of Wicked, a part closely tied to her stage and singing background. The performance earned her another Oscar nomination, and she returned for the sequel, Wicked: For Good, in late 2025.
Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o earned her master of fine arts in acting from the Yale School of Drama, graduating in 2012. She was still a student there when she was cast in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Her screen debut as Patsey won her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2014 ceremony.
She hasn’t left the stage behind. In 2016 she appeared on Broadway in Eclipsed, a play about women during the Liberian civil war, and the role brought her a Tony nomination. On screen she has moved between big franchises and smaller projects, including Black Panther, A Quiet Place: Day One in 2024, and the voice of Roz in the animated film The Wild Robot.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep earned her master of fine arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1975. She then worked in New York theater, appearing in productions staged by the Public Theater and on Broadway. Her stage work in the mid 1970s made her a respected name before her first movie role.
Her feature film debut came in Julia in 1977, and she was nominated for an Oscar a few years later for The Deer Hunter. She has since won three Academy Awards and holds the record for the most acting nominations in the Academy’s history. In recent years she has also taken on television, appearing in Only Murders in the Building, while continuing to work in film.
