Ben Vereen

Ben Vereen moves easily between stage, screen and television, and his reputation rests on a blend of dance, song and acting. Born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, in 1946 and raised in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant, he trained at the High School of Performing Arts under Martha Graham, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. That combination carried him through Broadway musicals and into television drama, most famously as Chicken George in Roots.

He began off-off Broadway in The Prodigal Son at the Greenwich Mews Theater, then joined Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity and appeared as a backup dancer for Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1969 film. Vereen was nominated for a Tony for Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972 and won the award for Pippin the following year. Later milestones include an Emmy nomination for Roots in 1977, a 1981 inauguration performance that drew controversy, and his 2011 appointment as co-artistic director of Tampa's Broadway Theatre Project.