Legendary is the best way to describe our next of Cultural Attaché’s Icons 2025: Leslie Uggams.
You might know her from her role as Kizzy in Roots. You might know her as Blind Al in the Deadpool movies with Ryan Reynolds. You might now her as a Tony Award winner for Hallelujah, Baby! Or for her role on The Gilded Age. It doesn’t matter how you know her, you just do.
Earlier this year Leslie Uggams was the recipient of the Torchlight Music Theatre Icon Award and that was the reason we spoke on August 18th.
We had a wide-ranging conversation that allowed Uggams to reflect on the milestones of her extraordinary life on stage and screen, the lessons she learned from legends like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, the importance of craft in an era of instant celebrity, and the joy she still finds in new challenges. With candor and humor, she speaks about breaking barriers, keeping her voice in top form, and what her six-year-old self — the little girl who once saw Leontyne Price in Porgy and Bess — might say about the remarkable journey that followed.
This interview was posted on September 9th.
To read the print version of my interview with Leslie Uggams, which includes performances clips and her current demo reel (!), please go HERE.
Photo: Leslie Uggams in the Cultural Attaché interview