Tony Awards Close-Up: Five-Time Nominee Laura Benanti Has Made the Jump from Featured to Leading Actress!

Laura Benanti has been here before. The five-time Tony nominee (and one-time winner) has dazzled critics and audiences alike this season for her portrayal of 'Amalia' in the Roundabout revival of She Loves Me. Below, she explains why she's excited to be movin' on up to the 'Leading Actress' category!

Benanti can be seen playing the role of Alura Zor-El in the CBS Action Drama, "Supergirl." In addition to television work and her critically acclaimed performance as Elsa Schrader in NBC's The Sound of Music LIVE, Ms. Benanti is a highly celebrated, four time Tony Award-nominated stage actress who took Broadway by storm at the age of 18. She received a Drama Desk award, Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony Award Nomination for her starring role in the Broadway production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for Lincoln Center where she also starred in the Broadway production of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play. Ms. Benanti earned the 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, a Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award for her revelatory portrayal of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy opposite Patti LuPone and directed by Arthur Laurents. Her other Broadway roles include The Wedding Singer, Nine, starring Antonio Banderas, her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award-nominated performance of Cinderella in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and her sultry Tony nominated turn in Swing! Ms. Benanti made her Broadway debut as Maria in The Sound of Music opposite Richard Chamberlain.

She Loves Me is a heartwarming musical comedy classic about finding love the good old-fashioned way. It follows Georg (Levi) and Amalia (Benanti), two parfumerie clerks who aren't quite the best of friends. Constantly bumping heads while on the job, the sparring coworkers can't seem to find common ground. But little do they know, the anonymous romantic pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other! Will love continue to blossom once their identities are finally revealed?

The American Theatre Wing's 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Tony Award winner James Corden, will air on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 12, 2016 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.