A decade ago, Da'Vine Joy Randolph earned rave reviews and a Tony nomination for her work on Broadway. On Sunday, she was the toast of Hollywood, taking home an Oscar on her first nomination for best supporting actress. Randolph shines in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers as boarding school cook Mary Lamb, who forms an unlikely bond with ornery teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) and angsty student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) over the holidays.
The 37-year-old bested a field that included two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster (Nyad), Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer), America Ferrera (Barbie) and Danielle Brooks ("The Color Purple").
"I didn't think I was supposed to be doing this as a career. I started off as a singer," a tearful Randolph told the audience at the Dolby Theatre. "And my mother said to me, 'Go across that street to that theater department. There's something for you there.' And I thank my mother for doing that."
Mary is one of the only Black faces at the New England campus where the film is set during the 1970s. She is in mourning for her son, one of the school's few Black graduates who was killed in the Vietnam War, and stuck on campus for Christmas. One of Randolph's big moments in the movie comes when Mary unexpectedly attends a family holiday party with Paul and Angus, and cathartically unleashes some of her grief.
"I was happily surprised to see the amount of context Mary had, the emotion of a completed story arc," Randolph told the Los Angeles Times late last year. "That might sound trivial and silly, but it's not always available, to a person of color in particular."
The Philadelphia-born actress cruised through awards season, scooping up oodles of critics' prizes, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild trophy.
"Mary, oh Mary. You have changed my life. You have made me feel seen in so many ways that I have never imagined," she said in her Golden Globes acceptance speech.
From stage to big screen
Randolph was born on May 21, 1986. As a youth, she attended the prestigious Interlochen summer arts camp in Michigan for theater. At Temple University in Philadelphia, she initially focused on classical music and opera performance before switching gears to be a musical theater major.
She fine-tuned those skills at the Yale School of Drama, where she earned her master's degree. One year later, Randolph turned heads on Broadway, getting a Tony nomination in 2012 for her portrayal of psychic Oda Mae Brown in "Ghost: The Musical."
She made her silver screen debut in 2013 in Mother of George, which opened at the Sundance film festival and starred Danai Gurira.
On television, she appeared in the cult favorite Selfie and did guest roles on various shows including The Good Wife, Veep, This Is Us and musical drama Empire.
Randolph's film breakthrough came in the well-received 2019 Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy. Voice work in several animated films followed, along with appearances in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" opposite Andra Day, and "The Lost City" starring Sandra Bullock.
On television, she scored recurring parts in "High Fidelity" and Only Murders in the Building.
And then Payne called. "I find that actors adept at comedy can do dramatic parts without being dreary in them," Payne told USA Today. "She gets huge laughs and also makes you cry."
Randolph also appeared last year in another Oscar-nominated film: Rustin starring Colman Domingo, in which she played gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who sang at the March on Washington.
Upcoming projects include action thriller "Shadow Force" starring Kerry Washington and Omar Sy, and action comedy "Bride Hard" starring Rebel Wilson.
"I'm very grateful for people's appreciation for my talent but in no way, shape or form have I showed the scope of me," she told The New York Times in the run-up to the Oscars. "I'm now beginning to have a growing platform to do so. Let's do it!"
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