The Tony Awards will be hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose in 2022

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05th May, 2022. 08:29 pm
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Ariana DeBose will host the Tony Awards next month, which honor the year’s top musicals and plays on Broadway, the American Theatre Wing announced Wednesday.

DeBose is a Tony nominee with multiple Broadway appearances, following in the footsteps of past hosts Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden. In March, she earned an Oscar for her strong performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “West Side Story.”

Following in the footsteps of previous hosts Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden, DeBose is a Tony nominee herself with several Broadway roles to her name. She won an Oscar in March for her powerful turn as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West side story remake

“I’m coming home!” DeBose said in a statement announcing her hosting gig. “I’m so honored to celebrate 75 years of excellence in theater, but more importantly every member of this community who poured themselves into making sure the lights of Broadway have the opportunity to shine brightly once again!”

The 2022 Tony Award nominees will be announced next week, with new musicals like the Pulitzer-winning “A Strange Loop” and pop smash “Six” expected to earn nominations. The ceremony will air June 12 at 8 p.m. ET.

Last year’s ceremony, co-hosted by Tony winners Audra McDonald and Leslie Odom Jr., took place more than two years after the previous ceremony due to Covid-19. The pandemic forced Broadway to go dark from March 2020 to September 2021, so the ceremony honored productions that premiered during the 2019-2020 season.

Before DeBose was Spielberg’s Anita, she was a Broadway veteran known to stage fans as “The Bullet” in smash-hit “Hamilton,” Jane in “A Bronx Tale” and Disco Donna in “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” for which she earned a Tony nomination. She also appeared in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of “The Prom” alongside Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.

With her Oscar win, Debose made history as the first out LGBTQ woman of color to win an Academy Award for acting.

The Tony Awards will be hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose in 2022

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