---
title: "Tracee Ellis Ross Makes Her Broadway Debut in a Daring One-Person Show"
description: "After decades on television, Tracee Ellis Ross is stepping onto a Broadway stage for the first time — and not gently. She takes over the title role in 'Every Brilliant Thing,' an intimate one-person play about depression, resilience and the small reasons to keep going."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Anjali Rao"
published: 2026-07-02T12:53:54.000Z
updated: 2026-07-02T12:53:54.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/tracee-ellis-ross-makes-her-broadway-debut-in-a-daring-one-person-show
tags: ["Broadway", "Tracee Ellis Ross", "theater", "Every Brilliant Thing", "entertainment"]
---
# Tracee Ellis Ross Makes Her Broadway Debut in a Daring One-Person Show

After decades on television, Tracee Ellis Ross is stepping onto a Broadway stage for the first time — and not gently. She takes over the title role in 'Every Brilliant Thing,' an intimate one-person play about depression, resilience and the small reasons to keep going.

Tracee Ellis Ross has spent a career in front of cameras, on hit television series and, more recently, running her own beauty brand. This summer she is trying something she has never done: a Broadway stage, alone.

## The debut

Ross is making her Broadway debut in "Every Brilliant Thing," taking over the solo role at the Hudson Theatre with performances beginning in early July, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/tracee-ellis-ross-broadway-every-brilliant-thing-2-1236634857/). She follows a high-profile lineage in the part: the production drew acclaim during a run by Daniel Radcliffe, and Mariska Hargitay took on the role this spring before Ross stepped in.

She is approaching it on her own terms, telling THR she has deliberately avoided watching others' performances so she can "find my own inspiration and not be guided by what I already know."

## The play

"Every Brilliant Thing," written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, is an unusual and demanding piece. It follows a narrator coping with a parent's depression by keeping a running list of things that make life worth living — small joys that begin in childhood and grow into adulthood. The show handles heavy subject matter, including a parent's mental illness, with warmth and humor, and it is known for gently drawing the audience into the story. It is a delicate assignment for any performer, and a striking choice for a first Broadway role.

## The performer

Ross, the daughter of the Motown legend Diana Ross, studied theater at Brown University before building her career largely on the small screen. She broke through on the sitcom "Girlfriends" and reached a wider audience as Rainbow Johnson on ABC's "Black-ish," work that earned her a Golden Globe and multiple Emmy nominations — including a 2016 nod that was widely noted as a milestone for Black actresses in the lead-comedy category. In recent years she has expanded into business and travel programming.

## A summer of solo

The Broadway run arrives during what Ross has framed as a season of solo ventures, dovetailing with the return of her travel series. For an actress accustomed to ensembles, carrying a show by herself — no scene partners, no subplots, just one performer and an audience — is both a risk and an invitation. If the gamble pays off, it will announce a new chapter for a performer who, after years on television, is stepping into the theater's oldest and most exposed form: one person, one story, live.

## Sources

- [Tracee Ellis Ross makes her Broadway debut in 'Every Brilliant Thing'](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/tracee-ellis-ross-broadway-every-brilliant-thing-2-1236634857/)
- [Every Brilliant Thing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Brilliant_Thing)