Sengbloh was born in
Atlanta,
Georgia. She first began acting at Tri-Cities School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Sengbloh then attended
Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, where she studied music and Spanish before leaving to pursue a career in acting and music.
Stage Sengbloh has starred in a number of Broadway musicals, including
Aida,
Wicked (as a standby for
Elphaba),
The Color Purple,
Hair,
Fela!,
Motown: The Musical, and
Holler If Ya Hear Me. Her breakthrough came in 2015, when
Danai Gurira cast Sengbloh in
Eclipsed, a play about five Liberian women and their tale of survival near the end of the
Second Liberian Civil War. It became the first play with an all-black and female creative cast and team to premiere on Broadway.
Eclipsed opened Off-Broadway at
The Public Theater in October 2015 with positive reviews and ran until November 2015. The following year, it transferred to Broadway, premiering at the
John Golden Theatre with an opening on March 6, 2016. Her performance received positive reviews from critics. She won
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for original Off-Broadway production, and
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for Broadway production. She played the role of Roberta in the 2018 historical drama film
Ask for Jane. In 2021, she starred opposite
Jennifer Hudson in the biographical drama film
Respect playing
Erma Franklin, the elder sister of
Aretha Franklin. In 2021, it was announced that she would play lead role Lillian Williams in the reboot of the TV series,
The Wonder Years. Miscellaneous In 2019, Sengbloh launched a personal lifestyle
podcast called SayconTalks. ==Filmography==