Wolverhampton-born Beverley Knight MBE has been nominated in the Actress in the Supporting Role in a Musical category at this year’s Olivier Awards. The English recording artist and musical actress – who also stars as a judge on the ITV series Starstuck – plays Emmeline Pankhurst in the Old Vic’s Sylvia, a role which she has reprised, having also played the historic feminist figure on the West End in 2018.
Beverley Knight is nominated alongside Maimuna Memon, who plays Nikki in the National Theatre production of Standing at the Sky’s Edge at the Olivier Theatre. Liza Sadovy and Marisha Wallace have also been nominated, both for performances in the Young Vic’s Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.
Knight stars alongside Sharon Rose, who plays the lead role of Sylvia in the Old Vic production which tells the story of the often lesser-known Pankhurst who was at the heart of the Suffragette movement.
The Stage reported on Knight in Sylvia: “[She] is resplendent as campaigning mastermind matriarch Emmeline Pankhurst, her voice a molten, golden glory as she propels her daughters on to the front line.”
Knight’s musical credits also include The Bodyguard, Memphis, Cats, Cinderella, Sweet Charity, Pantoland, The Drifters Girl and Sister Act. The actor has already been awarded two Olivier Awards; the first in 2015 for Memphis, and the second in 2022 for The Drifters Girl.
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