Celia Rose Gooding

Broadway Actress

Celia Rose Gooding is a 19-year-old actress starring in the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill. The show -- and all of Broadway -- is currently on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Celia Rose Gooding took Broadway by storm, when she followed in the footsteps of her Tony Award–winning mother, LaChanze. In December 2019, the actress made her Broadway debut as Frankie in the production of Alanis Morissette's musical Jagged Little Pill. She plays a 16-year-old adoptive, queer Black daughter in a white family who advocates for a friend who has been raped. 

While playing such an emotional role, Gooding also made history with her mother, as the first Black mother and daughter to appear on Broadway simultaneously. "As Black women, we are told that there's only so much that we can do," she told BET. "It's important that we are seeing reflections of ourselves doing well and in powerful places." 

Gooding is staying positive while in self-quarantine, filming her own social distancing PSA videos and posting them to Twitter and keeping up with her fans on Instagram to pass the time while she waits to get back to work. 

"I miss my job a lot, obviously, but I know I’ll be back soon," she posted on Instagram with a picture of the day her production announced the transfer to Broadway. 

After all, Gooding has learned to be patient and to know and trust her worth. 

"My mom has this wonderful metaphor," she said. "You can be the best Daisy in the world, but if they're looking for a Rose, you're not going to be picked. But that doesn't mean that you're not what you are. And that is something that is worth space and something that is worth the time and energy and love and, and admiration and respect."