Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg is an actress, comedian, writer, and TV host who is one of the few people to have earned an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards).

On Broadway, she wrote and performed in a self-titled solo show in 1984, winning a Drama Desk Award, and produced the musicals Thoroughly Modern Millie (Tony Award) and Sister Act (Tony nomination), adapted from the same-named film she starred in. She also starred in the musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Xanadu, the play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and another solo show called Whoopi.

On screen, she is best known as a co-host of The View (Emmy Award) and for her film performances as Celie in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (Golden Globe), Oda Mae Brown in Ghost (Academy Award), Dolores Hart in Sister Act and Sister Act 2, and Shenzi in The Lion King (voice role).

As a comedian, Goldberg has won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor as well as a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording in 1985 for Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway. She was the first Black woman and second solo woman to receive the award.

In 2026, a new version of her 1984 solo show Whoopi Goldberg, newly titled The Whoopi Monologues, premieres off Broadway with Lincoln Center Theater, starring Kerry Washington and Kara Young.