Good Business

Jennifer Hudson, Entertainer Extraordinaire

In June, Hudson, then 40, became the youngest female performer to earn EGOT status—meaning she’s won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and, now, a Tony.

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By Kelsey Butler

December 14, 2022 at 10:52 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the December 26, 2022 issue of businessweek.

She got her Tony as a producer of A Strange Loop—a Broadway musical about a Black, queer theater usher writing a musical—and joined stars such as Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn and Whoopi Goldberg in the EGOT club. The only two winners younger than Jennifer Hudson at the completion of their cycles were singer John Legend and composer Robert Lopez, both 39.

Hudson’s path to stardom began on the singing competition show American Idol, where she was a finalist. Three years later, in 2007, she won the Oscar for best supporting actress in the movie musical Dreamgirls. Her first Grammy, for best R&B album, came two years after that. In 2021 she snagged a Daytime Emmy Award for serving as an executive producer of an interactive animated short, Baba Yaga. Hudson now has a talk show featuring celebrity interviews and musical performances.