In 2013, the hit TV show Glee's star Amber Riley, became the first black woman to win the long-running hit dancing competition show, Dancing With The Stars.
But her tremendous success didn't stop the talk, or the criticism, about her weight.
Riley's "DWTS" winner's speech said it all: "I want to let women of all sizes out there know you can do whatever you put your mind to!" she said. "It doesn't matter what size, what color you are — you can do whatever, whatever, whatever you put your mind to!"
Throughout the season, the actress had to deal with remarks from some viewers about her size.
"There were a couple [comments], like, 'She danced well — for her size,'" Riley told In Touch. "I don't want people to think that! I just want to dance well ... I don't think it should be an anomaly for a person my size to be able to dance or have confidence. Everybody should have confidence."
She added that she had no desire to become a stick figure and definitely wants to keep some of her assets as is.
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"I keep telling Derek [Hough], 'If I lose my butt and my hips, you're outta here!'" she joked.
The star added: "I think it's amazing that I'm doing something positive, and I did something just because I wanted to learn how to dance just because I wanted to work out, you know what I mean? I wanted to be healthy. It was kind of a selfish reason."
In 2017, Riley won the musical actress Olivier Award for her performance as Effie White in Dreamgirls at the Savoy Theatre, a production said to be heading for Broadway.
"At the time, no one was talking about putting it back on Broadway; that wasn't the conversation. It was my agency who told me that they were doing Dreamgirls on the West End. My agent is...
... [director-choreographer] Casey Nicholaw's agent, so I was asked if I would come to New York and audition. I had literally just had surgery and had to fly and my voice was not all the way there and they wanted me to sing 'And I Am Telling You ...' and 'I Am Changing,' and I said that I couldn't sing both of them, so they said, "OK, do one or the other," and then they loved it. After that, I had to come to London to audition for the producers and I had to do both songs and had a cast on my foot and bronchitis, but somehow I got through them. That was one hell of a year!
Since then, Riley would appear as a guest judge on the show Let It Shine back in 2017. The British series aimed to find people to star in a Broadway show retelling the story of the boy band Take That. Her appearance was during the audition stage and was not for the long term.
Elsewhere, Amber Riley has appeared in projects like Nobody’s Fool, Infamous, and she even took part in the live Little Mermaid event from 2019. Thanks to her experience and talent, Riley will be featured on the upcoming Dream show, which boasts a wonderfully talented cast.
The talented performer released her debut EP.
The EP, dubbed RILEY, marked an artistic turn for the singer, as she now has a growing body of work that will develop into a full album for her fans. She has informed us of a specific release date yet, but fans are waiting patiently.
