Celia Rose Gooding

Gooding was born to actress, singer and dancer LaChanze,^[2] and Calvin Gooding, who died in the September 11 attacks. They have one sister, Zaya.^[3]

Gooding attended the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, with their sister^[4] and graduated with honors in performing arts. They occasionally took leaves of absence from high school to do readings for the musical Jagged Little Pill, which they were also involved in developing. In the workshop during their junior year, they had three hours of tutoring in the morning before rehearsals, to replace regular schooling.^[5] Their senior project revolved around their participation in the show's out-of-town tryout at the end of their senior year. Their other training included studying dance at the Alvin Ailey Institute and studying acting and film with a concentration in Shakespeare at the Berridge Conservatory in Normandy.^[6]

In 2018, Gooding began attending Pace University. Initially double majoring in musical theatre and child psychology, they dropped the latter major during their second and final semester.^[7]

Gooding was inspired to become an actor when they watched their mother win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for The Color Purple in 2006 on TV. However, they only started participating in musical theatre productions in ninth grade.^[8] Throughout their high school experience, Gooding played various roles such as Carmen in the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy's production of Fame.

In 2017, at age 17, Gooding was cast in the first 29-hour reading of Jagged Little Pill,^[9] an original musical written by Diablo Cody based on the music of Grammy Award-winning artist Alanis Morissette, that included stars such as Idina Menzel. They originated one of the lead roles of the show, Frankie Healy: a 17-year-old Black, bisexual activist who was adopted into an affluent white family in a suburb in Connecticut.^[10] They participated in the 2018 lab and later the world premiere of the show at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 2018.^[11]

Gooding reprised their role as Frankie when the show transferred to Broadway in November 2019 at the Broadhurst Theatre.^[12] They received accolades including Broadway World's Debut of the Month^[9] a Clives Barnes Award nomination,^[13] and Broadway.com's Debut of the Year. They were also honored as one of BET's Future 40.^[14] They also performed on Late Night with Seth Meyers,^[15] Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest,^[16] and Good Morning America.^[17]

In 2019, Gooding and their mother, LaChanze, performed on Broadway at the same time, with LaChanze starring in A Christmas Carol and Gooding starring in Jagged Little Pill^[18]—a rare event previously accomplished by Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.^[19][20][21]

Gooding received accolades for their performance in Jagged Little Pill, which closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They received the award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical at the inaugural Antonyo Awards^[22] and were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.^[23] They also participated in the 2020 Playbill Pride Spectacular along with co-star Lauren Patten.^[24]

Gooding was cast as Nyota Uhura in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.^[25]

On September 24, 2021, Gooding announced that they would not be returning to Jagged Little Pill due to alleged transphobic and abusive treatment of the show's non-binary cast members.^[26][27]

Gooding has been particularly vocal about the issues surrounding being Black on Broadway. They participated in the New York Times' "Offstage"^[28] program in June 2020 that discussed racial justice on Broadway,^[29] a panel on ABC about the realities of being Black on Broadway for Black History Month,^[30] and a Black Theatre Matters benefit panel hosted by Samantha Williams.^[31]

Gooding has participated in a panel for normalizing consent and advocacy for sexual assault victims for the summer 2020 series, Transformation 2020: Popular Democracy Defined with co-star Kathryn Gallagher.^[32]

Gooding is bisexual,^{[33][better source needed]} and gray asexual,^[34] Gooding is also non-binary,^[35] and uses she/her and they/them pronouns.^[36]