Theatre & dance / Film & TV / Music
Roz Ryan
born 1951 · actress, singer, comedian
Detroit nightclub singer who jumped to Broadway in Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) and became the longest-serving Matron 'Mama' Morton in Chicago.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 75- Birth name
- Rosalyn Bowen
- Detroit years
- 1950s–1978
- Field
- Theatre & dance, Film & TV, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ryan was born Rosalyn Bowen in Detroit to parents who worked for the Board of Education, and graduated from Mackenzie High School in 1969. A year later she cut a single for Stax/Volt, and for thirteen years she sang in Detroit nightclubs. A friend urged her to audition for the Fats Waller revue Ain't Misbehavin'; she got the job and was on a Broadway stage ten days later. She went on to Dreamgirls and One Mo' Time, and in the long-running revival of Chicago she returned again and again as the prison matron Mama Morton, holding the record for the longest tenure in the role. On television she was Amelia Hetebrink on the sitcom Amen, and in animation she voiced Thalia, the Muse of Comedy, in Disney's Hercules and Cake in Adventure Time.
Highlights
- Mackenzie High School graduate (1969) and Detroit nightclub singer for 13 years
- Broadway debut in Ain't Misbehavin' (1978)
- Record-holding Matron 'Mama' Morton in Chicago on Broadway
- Amelia Hetebrink on the NBC sitcom Amen; voice of Thalia in Disney's Hercules (1997)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1960s–1969
Mackenzie High School (former)
Closed · 2012
The northwest Detroit public high school from which she graduated in 1969; the school closed in 2012.