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Aduba began earning recognition for her work in 2003, with a performance in "Translations of Xhosa" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that won her a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Play. Her Broadway debut was in 2007 as Toby in "Coram Boy". She was a member of the Original Revival Cast of "Godspell" at the Circle in the Square Theatre from 2011 through 2012. She also played the mother of the title character of "Venice" at The Public Theater in New York. Her first television appearance was on the TV Series "Blue Bloods" in 2012. In 2013 she began to receive wider recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Suzanne Warren, also known as "Crazy Eyes", in the Netflix series _"Orange Is the New Black" .
Aduba told NPR interviewer Michel Martin that her full first name, Uzoamaka, means "the road is good" in her parents country of origin, Nigeria.
After having mostly unsuccessful auditions, Aduba got the call that she got the role of Crazy Eyes on "Orange is the New Black," 45 minutes after she decided to quit acting altogether.
She and Edward Asner are the only two people to win Emmys in both Drama and Comedy categories for playing the same character. Asner played the character of "Lou Grant" in "Mary Tyler Moore" (Comedy) and in "Lou Grant" (Drama), while Aduba owes her Emmys in Comedy and Drama for her performance as "Crazy Eyes" to "Orange Is the New Black" s switch from the Comedy to Drama competition (due to newly introduced Emmy rules in the 2014/2015 season).
In a 2014 interview with The Improper Bostonian magazine, Aduba said that growing up in New England, she often encountered people who couldnt pronounce her first name, Uzoamaka. "In grade school, because my last name started with an A, I was the first in roll call, and nobody ever knew how to pronounce it. So I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, Why? I said, Nobody can pronounce it. Without missing a beat, she said, If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka".
I love the excitement of being able to perform, and funnel that,precociousness into a more positive form of, "Look at me, look at me!".
Actors are 50% ego, 50% insecure.
I like to build a character, trying to stretch my imagination as far to the walls of my brain as I can to come up with something that feels truthful and feels real - as close to the skin as I can get it.
I think of myself as a little kid, and I had a wild imagination, but it was something that was encouraged and supported, which helped steer me into the arts.
I kept hiding my smile in pictures throughout middle school and most of high school until picture day came my senior year.
