Focus Features Shares First Look at Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman in New Biopic

Tony Award winner and celebrated stage actor Cynthia Erivo has thankfully crossed over into film of late, last year appearing in Widows with Viola Davis. Now, the British singer is starring in Harriet, a biopic about revered political activist Harriet Tubman.

Focus Features released a first look at Erivo as Tubman Thursday, apt considering we’re early into Black History Month. The forthcoming film is directed by Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, Talk to Me), who also co-wrote it with Remember the Titans screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard. Howard is producing with Debra Martin Chase and Daniela Taplin Lundberg. Besides Erivo, the bill includes Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr in Hamilton), Janelle Monáe (!!!), Joe Alwyn (The Favourite), country artist Jennifer Nettles and Clarke Peters (The Wire, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri).

Check out the first-look photos, captured by Glen Wilson for Focus Features, below.