Gooding was raised in New York, New York. They were born to actress, singer and dancer LaChanze,[2] and Calvin Gooding, who died in the September 11th attacks. They have one sister, Zaya.[3]
Gooding attended the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, with their sister[4] and graduated with honors in performing arts. They occasionally took leaves of absence from high school to do readings for the musical Jagged Little Pill, which they were also involved in developing. In the workshop during their junior year, they had three hours of tutoring in the morning before rehearsals, to replace regular schooling.[5] Their senior project revolved around their participation in the show's out-of-town tryout at the end of their senior year. Their other training included studying dance at the Alvin Ailey Institute and studying acting and film with a concentration in Shakespeare at the Berridge Conservatory in Normandy.[6]
In 2018, Gooding began attending Pace University. Initially double majoring in musical theatre and child psychology, they dropped the latter major during their second and final semester.[7] They left Pace after their freshman year, as rehearsals for the Broadway run of Jagged Little Pill started in September 2019.
Acting career
Gooding was inspired to become an actor when they watched their mother win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for The Color Purple in 2006 on TV. However, they only started participating in musical theatre productions in ninth grade.[8] Throughout their high school experience, Gooding played various roles such as Carmen in the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy's production of Fame.
In 2017, at age 17, Gooding was cast in the first 29-hour reading of Jagged Little Pill,[9] an original musical written by Diablo Cody based on the music of Grammy Award-winning artist Alanis Morissette, that included stars such as Idina Menzel. They originated one of the lead roles of the show, Frankie Healy: a 17-year-old Black, bisexual activist who was adopted into an affluent white family in a suburb in Connecticut.[10] They participated in the 2018 lab and later the world premiere of the show at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts in May 2018.[11]
On September 24, 2021, Gooding announced that they would not be returning to Jagged Little Pill due to alleged transphobic and abusive treatment of the show's non-binary cast members.[26]
Gooding has been particularly vocal about the issues surrounding being Black on Broadway. They participated in the New York Times' "Offstage"[32] program in June 2020 that discussed racial justice on Broadway,[33] a panel on ABC about the realities of being Black on Broadway for Black History Month,[34] and a Black Theatre Matters benefit panel hosted by Samantha Williams.[35]
Because of their participation in the show Jagged Little Pill, Gooding has also been vocal about justice for the LGBTQ+ community and the interracial adoption adoptee community.
Gooding has participated in a panel for normalizing consent and advocacy for sexual assault victims for the summer 2020 series, Transformation 2020: Popular Democracy Defined with co-star Kathryn Gallagher.[36]
^Haun, Harry (2020-04-01). ""From the Archives: When Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Simultaneously Starred on Broadway"". Playbill. Retrieved 2023-09-13. Now that Raquel Welch has left Woman of the Year, the part has passed along—with Einstein-like logic—to the ever-peppy Debbie Reynolds, who arrived in that title role last month almost by divine right. … [Simultaneously] her daughter, Carrie Fisher, is appearing on the other side of Broadway, at the Music Box in Agnes of God, which, like her mom's, is a Tony-winning role. … 'The two of us on Broadway at the same time—it's a whole new thought for me,' Debbie admits.
