Loretta Devine Eli Stone

Equally at home on stage or on screen, award-winning actress Loretta Devine has created some of the most memorable roles in theatre, film and television. She first captured national attention in the role of Lorrell, one of the three original Dreamgirls in Michael Bennett`s classic award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. She followed that performance with a fiery portrayal of Lillian in Bob Fosse`s critically acclaimed stage production, Big Deal. Subsequent work in George C. Wolfe`s Colored Museum and Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill cemented Devine`s status as one of the most talented and versatile stage actresses.

Film roles soon followed, including a poignant turn as a single mother opposite Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett and Gregory Hines in Waiting to Exhale, which earned her an NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress. Devine also won an Image Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Penny Marshall`s The Preacher`s Wife, and an IFP Spirit Award for Best Actress for her work in Women Thou Art Loosed. Most recently Devine was featured in the Academy Award-winning film Crash and the hit movie of Dreamgirls. Additional film credits include appearances in the successful Urban Legend franchise, I Am Sam, opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn, Kingdom Come, What Women Want, Punks, Hoodlums, Down in the Delta and Stanley and Iris. She also appeared in Sticky Fingers, Amos and Andrew, The Breaks, The Price of Kissing, Lover Girl, Class Act, Living Large, Caged Fear and Little Nikita. Up next for Devine are two Sony Screen Gems films, This Christmas for holiday release and First Sunday for Spring `08, in addition to the independent film Dirty Laundry.