Beauty and the Beast - Schezwae Powell

SHEZWAE POWELL
(Madame de la Grande Bouche)
Shezwae, a Californian, comes to Disney's Beauty and the Beast after playing a leading role in the British première of the new Neil Simon play Proposals at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Whilst rehearsing for Disney's Beauty and the Beast Shezwae's own production company Rising Roots Charitable Trust produced their first musical, Inner City Jam, at the Cockpit Theatre after two very successful workshop productions at the Royal Court Theatre and The Covent Garden Festival.

Prior to that, Shezwae appeared in the West End as Mrs. Crosby in The Goodbye Girl; Lady Thiang in The King and I; Mama Euralie in Once on This Island; Grisabella in Cats; Melba in 70 Girls 70; Eve in Children of Eden; Dorothy in King; Belle in Starlight Express; and Ronnette in Little Shop of Horrors.

Other theatre performances include her own one woman show Nearly Midnight at the Donmar Warehouse; It's Better With a Band at the Donmar Warehouse; Disappearing Acts at the Bloomsbury Theatre; Bubblin' Brown Sugar at the Comèdie de Paris; and soloist along with Jessye Norman in Great Day in the Mornin at the Thèatre Champs Elysee. In America, Shezwae appeared on Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin, Timbuktu, Raisin, Tricks, Jesus Christ Superstar and the Pulitzer Prize winning play No Place to be Somebody. She has many other American theatre performances to her credit such as Ancestors at The New York Public Theatre and soloist in the anniversary production of Leonard Bernstein's Mass at the John F. Kennedy Center which was also televised nationally on NBC.

For U.K. TV she is currently Mrs. Henderson in the BBC series "Bugs". She was Mrs. Davis in "The Tomorrow People", and has done both dramatic and musical performances on "Omnibus", "The Late Show", "Wogan", and "Pebble Mill". She has played leading roles in many radio plays including Carousel with Mandy Patinkin, The King and I with Joss Ackland and After You've Gone with Lenny Henry.

She has many recordings to her credit and has toured the world singing with various pop groups. Her singing and speaking voice can be heard on many radio and television commercials including her Advertising Award winning performance on the 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough!' series for DHL.