Biography
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Born
15 February 1986 (age 38)
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Born In
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
Amber Riley, a Compton Native, started her career on the hit tv show “Glee”. She now performs as RILEY.
As a member of the Glee Cast, Riley sang numerous solos, including "Bust Your Windows", "Hate on Me", "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", "Beautiful", "I Look To You", "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and an original song "Hell To The No."
At the age of seventeen, Riley auditioned for American Idol but was turned down by the producers. Amber graduated from La Mirada High School, La Mirada, California in 2004. In 2010, she had the honor of singing to President Obama, which she said was perhaps "the minute life was made complete".
In 2013, Amber won the seventeenth season of ABC's dancing competition Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with the show's one and only six-time champion, Derek Hough. Riley and Hough tied the record for highest first-week score of 27, received 5 perfect scores of 30, and only received a score lower than 8 one time. Riley is the first African-American woman to win the show.
Since “Glee”, she has gone on to do films such a, “Nobody’s Fool” alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Tiffany Haddish. She has also tackled theatre stages playing Addaperle in “The Wiz” and Effie White in “Dreamgirls” which won her an Olivier Award. She released her debut album, an EP simply titled RILEY, in 2020.
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