Birth information6 September 1972, Bloomfield, Connecticut, USA BioAnika Noni Rose followed her work in the feature film "Dreamgirls" with a role in the comedy feature "Just Add Water," in which she co-stars with Danny DeVito, Dylan Walsh, Jonah Hill and Justin Long, under the direction of Hart Bochner.In 2004, Rose was honored with a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the widely acclaimed Broadway show "Caroline, or Change." In addition, Rose won a Lucille Lortell Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Clarence Derwent Award, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for her work in the musical. Rose also reprised her role in the San Francisco and Los Angeles productions of "Caroline, or Change." For her performance in the latter, she won the Los Angeles Critic's Circle Award and an Ovation Award. Classically trained in drama at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, Rose moved to New York City to pursue her career, with great hopes of appearing on Broadway. Her goal was first realized when she replaced another actor for the last few months of the Broadway run of "Footloose." Her impressive theatre repertoire also includes "Eli's Comin'," for which she received an Obie Award; the role of Lutiebelle in the Encores! Production of "Purlie"; and "Threepenny Opera" and "Tartuffe" at A.C.T's Geary Theater. In addition, Rose received a Drama-Logue Ensemble Award for her role in "Insurrection: Holding History," and won a Garland/Drama-Logue Award for "Valley Song" at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In the midst of all of this, Rose was a featured vocalist at the Vatican in Leonard Bernstein's "Mass." It was during this time that she also work shopped Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's "Caroline, or Change," directed by the legendary George C. Wolfe. In 2003, the musical opened at New York's Public Theater, with Rose creating the role of Emmie Thibodeaux. In May 2004, "Caroline, or Change" moved to Broadway, taking Rose with it. In addition to her stage work, Rose has appeared on television in guest roles on such series as "Third Watch" and "Hack." She also had a lead role in the film "From Justin to Kelly."

I’m fresh out of the Princess and the Frog press juncket where I got to interview the leading lady, Anika Noni Rose, Directors Jon Musker and Ron Clements and Supervising Animator, Andreas Deja. The footage from those interviews should be ready to go early next week but in the mean time, check out this wonderful evening that was held in London last night.
Disney put on a special screening of the movie where celebrities including Anika Noni Rose (Princess Tiana), John Musker (Director), Ron Clements (Director),
William Tempest (fashion designer), Amanda Holden, Stacey Solomon (X Factor), Sinitta, Gail Porter,  Rt Hon. Paul Boateng, Donal MacIntyre were able to bring along thier kids and really experience the Disney magic in it’s full flow! At the event, Anika sang and was accompanies, rather randomly on piano by my friend Craig! It’s a small world!
We’ve also got a »
- David Sztypuljak

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Disney returns to old-style animation, and gives us an African-American heroine, but it all looks a little old-fashioned, says Peter Bradshaw
The geniuses at Pixar have revitalised the art of animation: how weird then to see Pixar's guiding spirit, John ­Lasseter as executive producer of this very old-style Disney animation, which could have been made during the Nixon ­administration. The only thing that alerts us to its modernity is its new racial awareness. For the first time, the Disney corporation has given us a princess who is black. Or … have they? Tiana, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, is an African-­American girl who once dreamed of kissing frogs to find her true prince. Now she's a hard-working young woman in New Orleans who dreams of opening a restaurant. A visiting aristocrat, Prince Naveen, voiced by Bruno Campos, is turned into a frog by a voodoo trickster and when Tiana kisses him – yikes! »
- Peter Bradshaw

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Precious (15)
(Lee Daniels, 2009, Us)
Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey. 110 mins.
It sounds like a relentlessly depressing pile-up of miseries: the tale of a 1980s Harlem teenager who's poor, lonely, overweight, undereducated, abused by both parents, and pregnant for the second time by her father. And it gets worse after that. But, mercifully, this doesn't play by European social realist rules, throwing in flourishes of fantasy and even comedy, and offering glimmers of hope, real and imagined, to lighten its heroine's unenviable burden. It's still a harrowing watch, powerfully performed and earnestly authentic, but even as it wallows in the gutter, it's looking for the stars.
The Princess And The Frog (U)
(Ron Clements, John Musker, 2009, Us)
Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos. 97 mins.
Another Disney Princess™ for the merchandising range, sorry, cinematic tradition, and the first African-American one. True to latter-day Disney form, she's capable and motivated – until she's turned into a frog, »
- Steve Rose

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