Saycon Sengbloh

Saycon A. Sengbloh (born October 23, 1977) is an American actress and singer. Her influences include the Jackson 5, Tina Turner, and Prince.

History
Sengbloh grew up in Atlanta with her mother Debroah Dixon and began singing publicly in middle school. She attended Tri-Cities High School and became involved with their magnet program for the Visual and Performing Arts. Throughout high school, she performed in many school plays and talents shows and was subsequently named "Visual and Performing Arts Student of the Year" prior to graduating.

Sengbloh attended Agnes Scott College, majoring in Spanish and Theatre/Voice. During this time, she began singing in the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta. Sengbloh began to blossom using the teachings of her mentor there, Freddie Hendricks. Sengbloh performed in many local theatre groups such as The Fox Theatre, 7-Stages Theatre, Jomandi Productions, and the Alliance Theatre Company.

Theatrical performances
Her "big break" came after answering a radio advertisement seeking for new, young performers for the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. Sengbloh caught the attention of a New York casting director and joined the 2nd National Tour of Rent performing the role of Mimi Marquez, an HIV-positive, drug-addicted S&M dancer. She performed the role of Mimi all over the United States as well as in Japan, from December 3, 1999 through December 3, 2000.

Following her success in Rent, Sengbloh was cast in Elton John & Tim Rice's Broadway musical Aida. She served as the standby for the main character, "Aida." Sengbloh performed the role in promotional appearances in addition to covering extended absences of stars such as Toni Braxton, Destiny's Child singer Michelle Williams, and singer Deborah Cox.

Sengbloh then participated in the creation of the role of Nettie in the musical version of The Color Purple, performing in the pre-Broadway tryout production in Atlanta.

In January 2005, shortly after the closure of Aida, Sengbloh was cast in Stephen Schwartz's new Tony-award winning musical, Wicked, as the standby for Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. She has performed the role numerous times, going on for stars Shoshana Bean, Eden Espinosa, Ana Gasteyer & Julia Murney. She left the production on February 17, 2007. Lisa Brescia succeeded her as standby.

She enjoyed a brief stint as the standby for Celie and Nettie in the musical adaption of The Color Purple when standby Montego Glover took a leave of absence from the show.

In 2007, Sengbloh was a member of "The Tribe" in the special 40th Anniversary concert version of Hair, performed in Central Park. She reprised her role in 2008 for a six-week engagement, part of Shakespeare in the Park and recently played the role again in the 2009 Broadway revival. Saycon appeared on the Grammy nominated New Broadway Cast Recording of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.

Sengbloh is currently co-starring, as "Sandra Izsadore", in the Broadway musical "Fela!" directed by Bill T. Jones. Fela! opened in the fall of 2009 and is the story of Nigerian composer and activist Fela Kuti. Saycon recently recorded the original Broadway cast album of Fela! scheduled for release in 2010.

Film, television and recording
In addition to her stage career, Sengbloh has performed in an assortment of television roles, movies, and commercials. As a teenager she appeared in public service videos produced for the state of Georgia to caution teens on safe driving, "Driving Ambition" and teenage pregnancy, "Ultimate Choice". Also, she appeared in TV commercials and print advertisements for the Georgia Hope scholarship program and Publix grocery stores. Sengbloh's first television movie, The Ditchdigger's Daughters, was based on a book by the same name and co-starred Carl Lumbly, Dule Hill, and Monique Coleman; in the movie she portrayed a young Kimberly McClelland. Saycon Sengbloh played Young Dearie B. in Funny Valentine's, a television movie based on the popular short story by J. California Cooper, about African-American who is raped by church member and separated from her sister and reared as distant cousins. Funny Valentine's was produced by Alfre Woodard and starred Alfre Woodard, Loretta Devine, CCH Pounder and Megalyn Echikunwoke. Sengbloh appeared in the Dawson's Creek episode "Escape From Witch Island" (Season 3, Episode 7) as the conspiracy theorist, one of Dawson's classmates. She appeared the film American Gangster as Tango's Woman and she can also be seen in the movie musical Across the Universe, in which she is featured as one of Sadie's backup singers in the last sequence of the movie. On the soundtrack she provided backing vocals on the songs "Don't Let me Down" and "All You Need is Love." She also released her solo album entitled Southern Pin-Up in late 2005 and Southern Pin-Up: Special Edition in 2008 with song remixes for Southern Pin-Up, Hottentot, and Recognize. Sengbloh appeared as Nurse Peltzer on the episode "Fallin" during season 19 of the prime time legal drama Law & Order. Sengbloh appears in the popular Mohegan Sun commercial, "Everyone's Invited" singing to the tune of the Rick James song Superfreak along side former Wicked co-star, Kate Reinders.. As a former stock print model, Sengbloh's image appears on the cover of the New York Times best seller, 2009 edition of the Connie Briscoe novel, "Big Girls Don't Cry".