Tony Award-winning actress Nikki M. James is best known for originating the role of Nabalungi in the hit Broadway musical Book of Mormon. She also recently starred in Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day at the Public Theater. Additionally, James had series regular roles on Braindead and Proven Innocent and recurred on shows including The Good Fight, Law & Order: SVU and The Good Wife.
James was born and raised in New Jersey, where she fell in love with the theater at a young age. With the encouragement of her parents, she began her professional career at age 13, appearing in commercials and voice-overs. James attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, earning a BFA in drama. She made her Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, followed by a leading role in House of Flowers for City Center's Encores! Series. A fixture in New York theater: she originated the role of Lorraine in the Broadway production of All Shook Up, perf
Tony Award-winning actress Nikki M. James is best known for originating the role of Nabalungi in the hit Broadway musical Book of Mormon. She also recently starred in Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day at the Public Theater. Additionally, James had series regular roles on Braindead and Proven Innocent and recurred on shows including The Good Fight, Law & Order: SVU and The Good Wife.
James was born and raised in New Jersey, where she fell in love with the theater at a young age. With the encouragement of her parents, she began her professional career at age 13, appearing in commercials and voice-overs. James attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, earning a BFA in drama. She made her Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, followed by a leading role in House of Flowers for City Center's Encores! Series. A fixture in New York theater: she originated the role of Lorraine in the Broadway production of All Shook Up, performed alongside Phylicia Rashad in Michael John La Chiusa's Bernarda Alba at Lincoln Center Theatre, and starred as Dorothy in The Wiz at the La Jolla Playhouse (2006 Craig Noel Award). In 2008, James took on classical theater at the world-renowned Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and starred opposite Christopher Plummer in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. Her other theater credits include the 2014 Broadway Revival of Les Miserables (Eponine), Shakespeare in the Park productions of Julius Caesar (Portia) and Twelfth Night (Viola), Dave Malloy's Preludes, and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin. Her film credits include Faraway Eyes, For Real, Lucky Stiff and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.
James has performed at Carnegie Hall, NJPAC, and The Center for the Performing Arts, among others, and has performed her solo cabaret show on land and sea. Her reps are Paradigm and Liebman Entertainment.
