Uzo Aduba has said she was on her way home, having decided to give up acting, when she got the call that she had been cast in Orange Is the New Black.
The role was Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, an inmate in the Netflix prison series that began in 2013. It made Aduba a star and won her two Emmy Awards for the same character: one as a guest actress in a comedy in 2014 and one as supporting actress in a drama in 2015, after the show switched categories. She is one of very few performers to win Emmys in both comedy and drama for the same role.
A Nigerian family in Boston
Uzoamaka Nwanneka Aduba was born in Boston to Nigerian parents and grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts. She was a figure skater as a child and studied classical voice at Boston University before turning to acting. Her full first name, Uzoamaka, means “the road is good” in Igbo, and she has told the story of asking her mother, as a child, to call her something easier. Her mother told her that if people could learn to say Tchaikovsky, they could learn to say Uzoamaka.
Broadway before Netflix
Before television, Aduba worked in theatre, including on Broadway in Godspell and Coram Boy. She auditioned for years with limited success, which is why she was ready to stop acting before Orange Is the New Black changed everything.
Crazy Eyes
Suzanne began as a comic, unsettling character, but the writers and Aduba gave her depth over the show’s seven seasons: her mental health, her adoptive family and her need for love. Aduba’s performance moved between comedy and tragedy, which is why it was recognised in both Emmy categories.
Mrs. America
In 2020, Aduba won her third Emmy for playing Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress and the first to run for a major party’s presidential nomination, in the FX limited series Mrs. America. She then starred as a therapist in HBO’s In Treatment.
What she says about names
Aduba’s story about her name has been shared widely, especially among children of African immigrants who have felt pressure to shorten or change their names. Her message is simple: people can learn to say your name.
The Nigerian connection
Aduba has spoken often about her Igbo heritage and her parents’ influence. Nigerian fans celebrate her as one of the most decorated Nigerian-American actors in television.
She almost walked away from acting on the day it finally called her back. Three Emmys later, the name she once wanted to shorten is on every one of them.
