Goldsberry was raised in a family of scientists and engineers in Houston, where he currently lives. A cousin told her at the age of 6 or 7 that she had what it took to be a singer, and she was on her way.
She worked in regional theatre after getting her B.F.A. and even went on a few tours. She said, “However, I was left feeling unsatisfied. In Los Angeles, she enrolled in the University of Southern California and earned a master’s degree in vocal jazz performance.
For a time, she aspired to be a singer-songwriter like Natalie Merchant or Erykah Badu. Fe-Male, a girl band, was also a short-lived project of hers. “We were exactly like Girls5eva was, except they actually got signed,” she said, “and we were.”
Would she have chosen the glamour of a girl group over the integrity of Lilith Fair? According to her, “I would have been anything.”
She found work as a backup singer on the dramedy “Ally McBeal” in the 1990s before returning to New York to work on an independent film where she met the man who would become her husband.
She then made it to Broadway, filling in for Nala and Mimi, respectively, in “The Lion King” and “Rent.
Shakespeare in the Park’s “Two Gentlemen of Verona” featured her in 2005, and Ben Brantley, writing in the Times, referred to her as “the production’s true find, a sparkplug of musical wit and vitality.” The director Thomas Kail and the writer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda were in the audience on one occasion. “It was like watching a meteor shower,” Kail recollected. “It left a lasting impression.”
The Good Wife” recurring role she had landed her a call to audition for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” a decade later. In the past, Goldsberry had missed out on roles and cheered on the women who had taken those roles.
It was “Hamilton” that made her doubt her ability to survive, she said. Because she didn’t need to.
Goldsberry has no idea why she was late. It’s possible she wasn’t good enough in the past to be promoted. That could have been the case. The co-creator of “The Good Wife,” Robert King, told me that “it’s harder for Black actresses,” but she didn’t elaborate.
