Fil-Am Nicole Scherzinger wins first Tony Award

Filipino-American Nicole Scherzinger won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2025 Tony Awards held 8 June at the Radio City Music Hall, New York.

The former Pussycat Dolls singer made her Broadway debut as Norma Desmond in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Sunset Boulevard.

“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong. But you all have made me feel like I belong, and I have come home, at last,” Scherzinger said. 

Scherzinger has beaten six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald’s portrayal of Rose in Gypsy. Other nominees in the category are Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty from Death Becomes Her and Jasmine Amy Rodgers from Boop! The Musical. 

In 2024, Scherzinger won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance across the pond, a production also by Jamie Lloyd.

“Jamie Lloyd you saw in me what know one else did. You gave us all new ways to dream and you’ve changed my life together,” Scherzinger added.

Sunset Boulevard, based on the 1950s film of the same name, follows the life of fading silent screen star Nora Desmond. As she lives in her decaying Sunset Boulevard mansion, she meets a young screenwriter who she sees as an opportunity to return to the big screen.

Here are the other winners:

• Best Play: Purpose (Branden Jacobs-Jenkins)

• Best Book of a Musical: Maybe Happy Ending (Will Aronson and Hue Park)

• Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: Maybe Happy Ending (Will Aronson and Hue Park)

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Sarah Snook, for The Picture of Dorian Gray

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Francis Jue, for Yellow Face

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Kara Young, for Purpose

• Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Jak Malone, for Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Natalie Venetia Belcon, for Buena Vista Social Club

• Best Scenic Design of a Play: Miriam Buether and 59, for Stranger Things: The First Shadow

• Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, for Maybe Happy Ending

• Best Costume Design of a Play: Marg Horwell, for The Picture of Dorian Gray

• Best Costume Design of a Musical: Paul Tazwell, for Death Becomes Her

• Best Lighting Design of a Play: Jon Clark, for Stranger Things: The First Shadow

• Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Jack Knowles, for Sunset Blvd.

• Best Sound Design of a Play: Paul Arditti, for Stranger Things: The First Shadow

• Best Sound Design of a Musical: Jonathan Deans, for Buena Vista Social Club

• Best Choreography: Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, for Buena Vista Social Club

• Best Orchestrations: Marco Paguia, for Buena Vista Social Club

• Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Harvey Fierstein

• Special Tony Award: The musicians who make up the band of Buena Vista Social Club, and The Illusions & Technical Effects of Stranger Things: The First Shadow

• Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award: Celia Keenan-Bolger

• Regional Theatre Tony Award: The Muny

• Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre: Great Performances, Michael Price, New 42, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts