Shanice Williams also known as Shanice Shantay (July 9, 1996) is an actress from Rahway, New Jersey who portrayed the role of Dorothy Gale in The Wiz Live! on December 3, 2015.
Biography[]
In school, she was in many performances, like Pippin and West Side Story, at a local theater. When they did The Wiz, she portrayed Addapearle The Good Witch of the North. She was afraid at the time to portray the role of Dorothy.
When auditioning for The Wiz Live, Shanice Williams sang "Home" for the producers and director. She was ultimately chosen for Dorothy out of 600 young girls who auditioned. The producers say they chose her due to the softness of her eyes and her effortlessness of her singing won her the part. It was her first professional audition.
Shanice Williams earned a Critics' Choice Awards nomination for Best Actress in a Movie Made for Television for her performance as Dorothy, but lost to Kirsten Dunst, who won for Fargo.
In 2017 Williams starred in the award-winning HBO film Manic. For her role in this film, she won best actress in a drama at the New York Television Festival and best actress in a drama at SeriesFest.
In 2018 Williams made her New York stage and Off-Broadway debut in Little Rock, a play about the Little Rock Nine. A year later, Williams was cast in the Hollywood Bowl production of Into the Woods as Little Red Riding hood, alongside Broadway stars Sutton Foster, Cheyenne Jackson, Sierra Boggess, Patina Miller and guest-starring Whoopi Goldberg, which ran July 26–28.
