Hannah Cruz

Cruz was born Hannah Rose DeFlumeri to Jack and Jackie DeFlumeri.^[3] She grew up in Newtown, Connecticut.^[1] Cruz graduated from Newtown High School in 2010.^[4] She attended Broadway musicals as a teen, including the 2008 Gypsy revival starring Patti LuPone, who she has cited as a major inspiration.^[1][5] Cruz was accepted to Ithaca College, but chose to develop her acting career instead.^[4]

In 2010, she uploaded a performance as Mama Rose in her senior musical Gypsy to YouTube.^[1] It was shared at the time by Playbill as a viral video that received ten thousand views in less than a month.^[6][7] The video earned her an audition for a national non-Equity tour of Legally Blonde as Vivienne Kensington.^[1][7] After the tour, she moved to New York in 2011 to continue working as a professional actor.^[4]

After touring with Legally Blonde, Cruz continued to work in regional, touring, and off-Broadway theater throughout the 2010s. She acted in the 2015 national tour of Bullets over Broadway as Ellen.^[1] She played Elsa in the stage show Frozen – Live at the Hyperion at Disney California Adventure.^[5] Besides her theater work, Cruz also worked in food service and as a sitter.^[8]

Cruz joined the Hamilton national tour as Eliza^[5] in September 2018.^[9][10] She starred alongside Isa Briones (Peggy) and Stephanie Umoh (Angelica),^[11] as well as Edred Utomi.^[12] In 2020, she was cast as James Wilson in Diane Paulus's all-female revival of 1776 at the American Repertory Theater, which was postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[13] She later acted at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine, including in musical versions of The Da Vinci Code and Young Frankenstein.^[5][14]

She featured as Ruza Wenclawska in the original production of Suffs at the Public Theater in 2022. New York Times critic Maya Phillips referred to Cruz's performance as "droll."^[15] She also appeared as Camille in Only Gold, a dance musical by Andy Blankenbuehler and Kate Nash, at the off-Broadway MCC Theater.^[16] A critic at New York Stage Review praised her performance, noting that "Hannah Cruz (a Suffs standout) somehow manages to surf this sea of cliches, with a fine voice and vivid presence."^[17]

Cruz originated the role of Robin Martinez—a junior copy editor suspicious of the Stephen Glass-inspired lead character—in the premiere of Jason Robert Brown's The Connector in February 2024.^[18] Though praising her performance overall, one review by Frank Scheck faulted her and lead Ben Levi Ross for poor vocal projection.^[19] In her own review, Roma Torre described Cruz's "lovely" performance as "the conscience of the story."^[20]

She returned to Suffs for the 2024 Broadway transfer as Inez Milholland, described as "the best-developed character" in the off-Broadway version when originated by Philippa Soo.^[21] Director Leigh Silverman had requested Cruz shift to the Milholland role during a pre-transfer workshop, to test her viability as Soo's replacement.^[22] The role marked Cruz's Broadway debut.^[23] She performed with the show until its closing on January 5, 2025.^[24] Cruz also features in the Great Performances recording of Suffs, set to air on PBS in May 2026.^[25] Cruz received the Clarence Derwent Award in 2024, for her breakthrough appearances in both The Connector and Suffs.^[26]

Cruz joined the Broadway revival of Chess in 2025. She performed the role of Svetlana Sergievsky, the abandoned Soviet wife of an expatriated chess grandmaster played by Nicholas Christopher.^[8] To promote the production, Cruz ran the backstage vlog "Don't Svet It," reflecting on the production's opening.^[27] For her role, Cruz received mixed, generally positive reviews. In Variety, critic Christian Lewis wrote that "the usually lovely Hannah Cruz as Svetlana (Anatoly's wife) in a rare misstep. Despite using a Russian accent in her dialogue, she makes no attempt to sing with it, a confounding and distracting choice."^[28] Alternatively, Chris Jones noted in the New York Daily News that "all of the performances are bravissimo or bravissima and there's an especially impressive turn here from Hannah Cruz,[...] she gives her character such a vocal and dramatic shove that Chess actually becomes a love quartet, which is the first time I ever have thought that."^[29] In her New York Times review, Elizabeth Vincentelli called Cruz's performance "enticingly cryptic."^[30]

Cruz has been married to Edred Utomi since 2024.^[35][22] They met during the Hamilton national tour, where they played the married couple, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton, onstage.^[5] In 2026, both Cruz and Utomi starred in Broadway shows at the same time.^[36] Their two theaters (the Imperial and the Richard Rodgers, respectively) are connected by a tunnel, which Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed to the couple.^[37] During one Hamilton performance, Miranda and Cruz used the tunnel to surprise Utomi.^[37]