2026 Honorees & Award Recipients
Renée Elise Goldsberry
is a Tony and Grammy Award winning, three time Emmy Award nominated actress and singer. She recently released her debut album, Who I Really Am, featuring original music written by Goldsberry that blends soul, blues, pop, folk, and her gospel roots. Goldsberry is also the subject of the acclaimed 2025 documentary Satisfied, which explores her Hamilton journey alongside the emotional terrain of family-building and new motherhood, now available on demand.
Goldsberry returns to CBS this spring to star in a new series called Cupertino. Most recently, she starred in the Netflix comedy series Girls5Eva, earning multiple Critics Choice and TCA Award nominations for her scene-stealing performance as the deliciously self-obsessed Wickie Roy. She originated the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025, and appeared in Disney+’s filmed version, which won a Primetime Emmy Award.
Her Broadway credits include starring roles in Rent, The Color Purple, The Lion King, and David Lindsay-Abaire’s award-winning play Good People. Her screen credits include A House of Dynamite, Waves, The Good Wife, Altered Carbon, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, She-Hulk, Albany Road, and her breakout, two-time Daytime Emmy-nominated role as Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live.
TOM KIRDAHY
stands among the most influential and visionary producers in the entertainment world today, pushing the boundaries of live theater worldwide with his Tony and Olivier Award-winning productions. His current slate includes the Broadway smash hit JUST IN TIME starring Tony Award winner Jonathan Groff and directed by Alex Timbers; this season’s revival of McNally, Ahrens, and Flaherty’s epic masterpiece RAGTIME at Lincoln Center; and the film adaptation of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN starring Jennifer Lopez and directed by Bill Condon. Kirdahy’s roster also boasts the international blockbuster HADESTOWN (winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical) and the long-running hit revival of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Off-Broadway. He is responsible for some of the most daring and innovative productions of the last decade, including the critically-acclaimed revival of GYPSY starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and directed by George C Wolf; the UK Premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical HERE WE ARE, following a sold-out run in New York; CAROLINE a new play by Preston Max Allen and directed by David Cromer at MCC; the Tony and Olivier Award-winning play THE INHERITANCE, the first Broadway revival of August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON, THE JUNGLE, WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT, and THE VISIT as well as the box office record-smashing IT’S ONLY A PLAY and the global sensation ANASTASIA, amongst many more. Kirdahy spent the first twenty years of his career as an attorney providing free legal services to people living with HIV/AIDS in the Bronx and carries on his passion for justice and advocacy through his service on the Executive Board of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, the Broadway League’s Board of Governors, and many years on the Executive Board of NYC's LGBT Center.
Phylicia Rashad
is an award-winning actor, director, and educator whose career spans television, film, and the stage. She became a household name as Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show, creating a character celebrated for intelligence, elegance, and cultural impact, and earning widespread honors. Her television credits include The Gilded Age, The Chi, Diarra from Detroit, This Is Us (Emmy-nominated appearances), Empire, David Makes Man, The Good Fight, Little America, and The Crossover.
A formidable presence in the theatre, Rashad has appeared on and Off Broadway in productions that showcase both her dramatic and musical gifts, including Jelly’s Last Jam, Into the Woods, Dreamgirls, and The Wiz. Her major Broadway credits include Skeleton Crew( Tony and Drama Desk Awards), August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gem of the Ocean, and Cymbeline. She received both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play for her acclaimed performance as Lena Younger in the 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, and earned a Tony nomination for Gem of the Ocean. In 2016, she was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and won a Lucille Lortel Award for Head of Passes.
Her film work includes The Beekeeper, Creed, Creed II, Creed III, Just Wright, For Colored Girls, A Fall From Grace, Black Box, Soul, and Jingle Jangle.
Rashad is also a highly respected director. Her credits include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (NAACP Theatre Award for Best Director), A Raisin in the Sun, and Four Little Girls. In 2025, she directed the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning Purpose on Broadway following its Steppenwolf run.
Deeply committed to arts education, Rashad served as Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University and was named the inaugural Toni Morrison Endowed Chair in Arts and Humanities. She has led master classes nationwide and received numerous honorary doctorates.
A Magna Cum Laude graduate of Howard University, Rashad is a dedicated mentor, board member, and cultural ambassador whose legacy reflects a lifelong commitment to excellence and the transformative power of the arts.