Leslie Uggams Receives Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from UConn Today

Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer, and recording artist Leslie Uggams will receive an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Connecticut, Storrs today, May 9 during the school's 2015 commencement ceremonies. Ms. Uggams will address the graduating class of the School of Fine Arts, sharing industry insights gleaned from her decades-spanning career.

A statement from the university reads," Leslie Uggams has used her music and her acting career over the past 60 years to touch the hearts of men and women around the world in an effort to move them from the ignorance of prejudice to a place of understanding and compassion." Uggams broke the color barrier as a teenager when she appeared weekly on "Sing Along with Mitch." She again led the way when she became the first African American woman to host her own television variety show. Later she became part of network television history when she starred as Kizzy Kunte in the landmark ABC mini-series Alex Haley's Roots.

Last summer Uggams also became the first African American woman to star as Madame Rose in an Equity company of Gypsy. That production was mounted by the University of Connecticut as part of Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Nutmeg Summer Series. Months later Uggams became the first African American woman to play the title role of Mame at the Wick Theatre in Boca Raton, Florida.

"It's such a great, great honor to be chosen as this year's commencement speaker and to receive an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree," says Uggams. "In all of my 60-plus years of performing, I never would have imagined becoming Doctor Leslie Uggams. My father always believed in getting an education, so I know he and my mother would be very proud."

Performing non-stop since the age of six, Uggams is still going strong. She recently guest starred in three episodes of Nurse Jackie and this winter she began filming DEADPOOL for 20th Century Fox. She plays the popular Marvel comic book character Blind Al opposite Ryan Reynolds as the noted "merc with the mouth."

Leslie Uggams is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer whose career has brought her from Harlem (Uptown) to Broadway (Downtown), the big screen (Skyjacked) to television (The Leslie Uggams Show). Perhaps best known for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series Alex Haley's Roots (Critics Choice Award, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), Uggams has performed to critical and popular acclaim ever since her first professional appearances at the age of nine at the famed Apollo Theater. There she opened for such musical legends as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. Now, after six decades on stage and screen, Uggams is a legend in her own right. She is now on the Board of Directors of the Apollo Theater, and she was recently honored with the American Artist Award in a gala ceremony held at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.

On Broadway Uggams made her stunning musical theater debut starring in Hallelujah, Baby! earning both Tony and Theater World awards. Since then she has starred on Broadway in Blues in the Night, Her First Roman with Richard Kiley, Jerry's Girls, Anything Goes at the Lincoln Center Theatre (also the first national tour), King Headley II with Brian Stokes Mitchell (Tony Award nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie, and most recently On Golden Pond opposite James Earl Jones. Off-Broadway Uggams has won Audelco Awards for several highly praised star turns including The Old Settler, Keb Mo's blues musical Thunder Knocking on the Door, and First Breeze of Summer at the acclaimed Signature Theater. Regional roles include A Little Night Music at Michigan Opera Theatre, The Rink at the Cape Playhouse, Hello, Dolly! and Into the Woods at Houston's Theater Under the Stars, Master Class at TheaterFest in New Jersey, and Call Me Madam and Blue at Paper Mill Playhouse, NJ.

Uggams' still vibrant television career, which began at the age of six portraying Ethel Waters' niece on the TV series Beulah, spans decades. As a teenager she famously won a $12,500 college scholarship on Name That Tune, and as a regular on Sing Along with Mitch she was the first African American performer to be featured on a weekly national primetime television series. Other early guest appearances included Your Show of Shows, The Milton Berle Show, The Arthur Godfrey Show, and The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1970 she hosted her own primetime variety series, The Leslie Uggams Show. Later starring roles included her award-winning portrayal in Alex Haley's Roots, the miniseries Backstairs at the White House, the ABC-TV movie Sizzle, the HBO special Christmas at Radio City Music Hall, and her Emmy-winning duties as co-host of the NBC-TV series Fantasy. Recent television guest appearances include The Good Wife, Memphis Beat and NYC 22.

For more information on Leslie Uggams, visit her online at www.leslieuggams.com, www.facebook.com/LeslieUggams, www.YouTube.com/SmagguProductions or on Twitter @LeslieUggams.

Pictured: Leslie Uggams as Madame Rose in Gypsy at Connecticut Repertory Theatre.

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