One stars in The Little Mermaid and The Color Purple, two of the most anticipated films this year; another has the title role in the largely untold, true story of a slave son who became a highly regarded composer and violin virtuoso in 18^th century France.

Of the three others, one will star as a female soldier disguised as a man in a Western; the other will star in Mel Brooks’ long-awaited anthology series; and the last one, but certainly not the least, landed a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe epic.

Halle Bailey, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Letitia Wright, Ayo Edebiri, and Tyler James Williams are among the Black actors who are making an impact. Expect to see more of them in important projects in 2023 and beyond.

 

Halle Bailey

The talented singer-actress who was born in Atlanta, Georgia, will portray Ariel in the live-action Disney film, The Little Mermaid, and will also star in the 2023 film adaptation of the stage musical version of The Color Purple.

 

Cinemablend.com wrote that when Bailey guested on Tina Knowles-Lawson’s Talks With Mama Tina, she revealed her feelings about portraying Ariel. She said, “Getting that role felt very surreal. It was much of a shocker for me, even when I was asked to audition, I looked at it and I was like, ‘Me? For Ariel? that just doesn’t…’

“You know, because my image of Ariel that I’ve had is the red hair and the pale skin and the tail. She was amazing to me and I loved her like we all did, but that’s what I’ve seen her for so long. So even during the audition process, I remember being so scared and so nervous.

“I think my dad one time, he was like, ‘let’s run through the lines.’ And I started reading them and I started sobbing. He’s like, ‘Halle, what’s wrong?’ I’m just like, ‘I can’t believe I’m even going to go for this.’ But so grateful I kind of get to reinvent Ariel. And show other young, beautiful, black and brown children, that ‘Hey, you can be this too. You are magical and mythical and all of the other things in between as well.’ It was just a beautiful experience to kind of spread my wings in that way.”

Bailey, who began her acting career at age 3, appeared in Joyful Noise (2012) and the Disney TV film Let It Shine (2012).

In 2017, Bailey joined the TV series Grown-ish and played Skyler “Sky” Forster. She earned a nomination for the role at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Discovered by no less than Beyoncé, Bailey was only 13 while her older sister Chloe was 15 when they were a musical duo named Chloe x Halle.

As a solo act, Bailey told Rolling Stone, “I was so nervous to do something on my own. I was like, I don’t know if I can do it without her (Chloe). I’m so used to her being there and giving me that final push.”

On being a professional actress, and having the plum Ariel role, she added, “My mindset is to work, work, work so that I can see the payoff and move towards my goals. That’s what I’m used to. In the movie industry, I’m working 16 hours a day filming – I’ll be in the water busting my ass, crying, screaming, emotionally going to places I’ve never gone, and everybody there on set can congratulate you and say, ‘Yeah, you killed it today, kid,’ — but then you have all this time to wait.”

As for the importance of onscreen representation, Bailey said, “I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they’re special and that they should be a princess in every single way. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t be. That reassurance was something that I needed.”

In addition to her two coming high-profile films, Bailey also headlines the drama The Line.

 

Letitia Wright

The Guyanese-British actress attained global recognition with her portrayal of Shuri in Black Panther (2018) and then again in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). She also reprised the role in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and then in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

 

For this role, she won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in a Motion Picture and a SAG Award.

Born in Georgetown, Guyana, and raised in Tottenham, London, Wright performed in school plays. Wright and her family moved to London, England when she was just 8 years old. She attended the Northumberland Park Community School.

At age 12, Wright impressed everyone when she portrayed Rosa Parks in a play to commemorate Black History Month. The play was asked to be restaged in a nearby community theater.

When she turned 16, she enrolled at the Identity School of Acting.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said that she was inspired to be an actress after watching Akeelah and the Bee (2006). She said that Keke Palmer’s performance was inspiring and that the role “resonated. It’s one of the reasons why I am here.”

Wright, who admitted to suffering from depression in her early 20s and was saved by her faith, told BBC.com, “I want to encourage young people. You don’t have to be young, you can be any age, but I want to encourage you – anyone going through a hard time…God made you and you’re important, there might be some of you who might be going through a hard time. I just want to encourage you and God loves you. Just let your light shine.”

Heavily anticipated is Wright’s portrayal of a female Buffalo Soldier posing as a man heading West to claim a gold mine while protecting her group from a dangerous outlaw in Anthony Mandler’s coming Surrounded.

 

Tyler James Williams

Born in Westchester County, New York, Tyler James Williams began his acting career at age 4.

As a child actor, he appeared in such shows as Saturday Night Live, and Little Bill and played himself in Sesame Street (2000-2005).

He became well-known for playing the role of Chris Rock in Everybody Hates Chris (2005-2009). He won a Young Artist Award for his performance in this show.

He has also appeared in such movies as Detroit (2017) and The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021).

 

He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical-Comedy or Drama Television Series for his performance as Gregory Eddie in the sitcom Abbott Elementary.

 

He said in his Golden Globe acceptance speech, “I love y’all. It’s an honor to work with you every day. I pray that this is a win for Gregory Eddie and for his story and stories like this that we may understand but his story is just as important as all of the other stories that have to be told out here. Thank you so much for this.”

In an interview with Huffington Post, Williams stressed that he wants to show the average Black experience accurately. “If it doesn’t allow me to give voice to the young Black men that I needed to see growing up, then I don’t really know what I’m doing. I was a child of the early 2000s when, as great as they were, there wasn’t a lot of representation of an average Black male who was emotionally available, who had a vast emotional spectrum, who was thoughtful, and who could also be attractive at the same time. It didn’t have to be one or the other.”

He added, “You can be beautiful, you can be smart, you can feel all the emotions — the good ones, the bad ones — you can feel love. You can feel empathy. You can feel compassion. You can feel hurt. You can feel it and still be a strong, beautiful Black man at the same time. I oftentimes wonder how different my early life would have been if I had been given permission, either by myself or by somebody else, to be able to be that.”

Williams is announced as a cast member of Mel Brooks’ anthology series, History of the World: Part II.

 

Kelvin Harrison Jr.

In April, Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s much-awaited film, Stephen Williams’ Chevalier, will be released. In it, he plays the title role in the true story of a violinist and composer also known as the Black Mozart in the time of Marie Antoinette.

 

Born to musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana, Kelvin Harrison Jr., is, no surprise, also a skilled musician. He plays the piano and trumpet and sings.

In an interview with Collider, Harrison Jr. said, “My dad is a classically trained saxophonist and he studied with some of the best musicians out there. I had a very strict schedule. It was about discipline.

“It was about, if you want to be great, then you need to work hard at it, and so that kind of helped me approach prepping for a role, and just giving myself time to prepare and doing the research and not just being lazy and thinking things will come because things don’t just come to us, you know?”

When he moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue acting and take acting classes, he bagged roles in such films as Ender’s Game (2013) and 12 Years a Slave (2013).

Later, he did films such as The High Note (2020), The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Cyrano (2021), and Elvis (2022).

 

He also told Collider, “We’ve been very fortunate and very blessed to have the path we’ve had because things have kind of come that way. But I also seek out things that kind of parallel where I’m growing in my life. And I think that because the timing has just been great of, you know, race is a huge topic so then a young black kid or young black actor who comes into the big mix at the right time, things just sort of work out.”

Harrison Jr. will play Jean-Michel Basquiat in Samo Lives, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the TV series Genius: MLK/X, and is the voice of Taka in Mufasa: The Lion King, Disney’s prequel to its 2019 The Lion King.

 

Ayo Edebiri

Born in Boston to a mother who emigrated from Barbados and a father who emigrated from Nigeria, Ayo Edebiri has always loved acting.

She first became interested in comedy in eighth-grade drama class. Later, she joined the improv club at Boston Latin School.

A New York University alumna who majored in teaching, Edebiri started her career as a stand-up comedian at Comedy Central’s Up Next.

In an interview with W magazine, Edebiri explained why she left teaching.

“I wanted to be a high school English teacher and I looked like how I do now, but I looked even younger, and I was like, um, 10th graders are really mean and I’m too fragile for this,” she said.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Edebiri disclosed why she chose a career making people laugh. She said, “If I knew the true answer, I probably wouldn’t be doing comedy. I’d be living on a farm raising chickens and doing pottery. If I truly knew the answer, I would not have social media; I would read eight books a day.”

Edebiri also voiced Missy on the animated sitcom Big Mouth and said, “I’ve just always been kind of a strange child and I think in her journey through puberty, there’s definitely a lot of things I can relate to that, in terms of finding yourself on your own time and not always being the coolest or the most suave.”

In 2022, she was cast as a member of the comedy series The Bear and received nominations from the Gotham Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards for her performance as Sydney Adamu, the sharp and ambitious sous chef.

 

In her PopSugar interview, Edebiri revealed that she was able to relate and draw parallels with her own experience in comedy to Sydney finding herself in a male-dominated environment.

She disclosed, “There were a lot of things about the culinary industry that reminded me of just the creative industries in general. I think a lot of people can probably find parallels in trying to make your workplace more equitable.”

This year, it was announced that Edebiri will join the cast of Marvel’s Thunderbolts film. She will also be in the comedy, Bottoms.