Interview with Eva Noblezada
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Eva Noblezada
American actress and singer who played Kim in the Broadway revival of Miss Saigon and Eurydice in Hadestown, earning a Tony nomination for each.
Source: Broadwaycom on YouTube
These answers are taken from Show People with Paul Wontorek: Eva Noblezada of HADESTOWN on Broadwaycom's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with singing?
My dad, when I was younger, was my teacher and everything. He went to school to be a music teacher. He made me do basketball, so much so that I almost went to college to do basketball. Can you believe it? And he was also the guy at the piano making me do my arpeggios and making me sing at church when I was five.
In high school I worked my butt off in and out of school doing things. I made a makeshift recording studio in my closet. YouTube karaokes were the thing back in my day, and of course I was uploading videos. There were so many Smash covers. A lot of Maybe This Time, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Come to Your Senses. I think the best one was Bound to You, from Burlesque. I think that was the first one I deleted, actually.
What do you enjoy most about singing?
When it comes to being on stage, I love that drama of having the audience with me, and I love the feeling of when somebody can break my heart, when I read a novel or when I listen to someone sing. That's part of an emotional journey that I think is rare, and not as accessible as it should be. I think we're sometimes scared to show our emotions, but I see that as a huge strength. I just love crying on stage.
To walk into a show like Hadestown, where I find the story heartbreaking and inspiring, and to be able to sing Anais's music and be this beautiful character that is timeless and can be whoever the audience wants her to be, that is special to me. That makes Eva excited in life.
How did your career as a singer unfold?
I'm a huge advocate for mental health and anxieties, and for talking about the repercussions of being in an industry this tough, which it is. The things we love sometimes bite us on the butt, if we let it.
I learned from hard moments of my life: moving to a different country without anybody to be with me, and having to learn the hard way, having somebody go, 'You're not good enough, and we have to change everything about you.' And I'm just by myself at 17. I was a fetus when I moved to London. And I'm lucky for those hardships, because I wouldn't be the boss that I am today.
I was never not grateful in Saigon, because without Saigon, I would be nothing. But I think what I wanted to prove to myself after being in a show as big and legendary as Miss Saigon was that Hadestown is a completely different epic in my life.
What advice do you have for new singers?
I will never forget the piece of advice my dad told me. He made this simile of learning like a sponge, and asking questions. So every time I go into a room, if there are things I don't understand, it's okay to ask questions, so that I can learn and I can grow.
I think that people should realize that actresses and actors, even though some of them are idolized, have their own struggles. It makes me feel strong that I know Sutton Foster might have her own struggles, and I definitely have my own struggles. It's good that we keep the conversation open about it, because at the end of the day, we are just human.
With someone like Andre De Shields, I just like to ask questions, because they're so wise and fun. I just want to be friends rather than putting them in the sky. I mean, why can't I be in the sky too? Why can't we just have a good laugh? I want to learn from you.
How do you keep communication clear with directors, music directors and the people you perform with?
Reeve Carney is so intelligent, but it's so on the back foot that he just takes it all in. He really takes every detail in, and it comes through with the way that he writes his own music and the way that he speaks to people. When he speaks to people, he really looks at you, which means that on stage, when I'm acting, we learned to trust each other really quick. It was a very comfortable thing, which I'm very, very grateful for. So we just have a lot of fun.
The word that I use to describe the show, especially when it comes to the energy with the other actors, is cosmic. Rachel Chavkin is so amazing at creating this energy of cosmic astrology in the room. I feel like I'm walking among the stars when I do this show.
Of all the roles, songs and shows you have done, which is your favorite?
I feel like a contest winner. I feel like the luckiest person. I go to rehearse and I'm like, oh my god, I'm in the show! I'm grateful that they even asked me to audition, because before that I had never heard of Hadestown or the goddess that is Anais Mitchell. So thank goodness it brought the whole package into my life.
I see it as this marble chapel, and it's so beautiful to enter. My team knows that I love a challenge, and Hadestown would be a huge challenge, the type of music and developing a character like this. It's been hugely challenging, but the most satisfying thing I think I've ever done in my career so far. For sure.
I did Romeo and Juliet in high school. That was fun. That was one of my favorites I've done, but no singing was involved.
Describe your style.
I think I'm quite empathic, and I'm a very black and white personality, so if I'm going to be all in, I'm all in. I am hugely passionate about what I love to do and also hugely passionate about what I don't like. So I think that makes these hugely emotional roles easy for me to play. I can cry like that. That's not something I'm bragging about right now at this moment of my life, but on stage it helps.
The high school roles allowed me, in a non-professional setting, to get to know how my body and my brain worked with comedy, which I've yet to do on stage. But I think I'm pretty funny in real life.
Tell me about a song or a role that was hard to get right. What was it and why was it challenging?
In any story that I've seen Eurydice in, she doesn't say anything. She actually says nothing. So for me, I go, okay, how am I going to play that? I'm very grateful that, developing this character slowly but surely, Anais and Rachel and everybody in Hadestown have been very supportive of adding a punk kind of quality, and almost half of me as well, into this character, because she is a survivor.
Her first opening song introduces her saying, I've been like this all my life. All I've ever known is how to survive against the wind, with three matches in my pocket and a backpack of all my essentials, on the road, walking. That's her. She's a tough girl. So I wanted to make sure that she was relatable and not a mute, not a victim. She is a woman who's gone through a lot, and she just happens to fall in love with somebody who absolutely sweeps her off her feet. She never victimizes herself.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
I taught myself how to cry in the shower. If I did it in my room with no music, my mom would be like, what's wrong with her? She still asks that. Also it's better for your pores, the hot water, you know? I had to! I'm going to be in Miss Saigon! You pretend the wall is your lover and you're in the rain. You could be doing the Audrey Hepburn 'Cat!' scene to yourself. It's helpful! Thank goodness for it, because I have to cry every night.
Before the Tony Awards, before we were going to go on stage to perform, I was in my Kim do, and I walked up to Sutton Foster in her beautiful gown and was just crying. I was like, why can't I speak English? She was like, 'Oh, you're so sweet,' and we took a picture and I cried. I don't even remember what I said. I think I just made sounds at her.
Eva Noblezada's Full Biography
Eva Noblezada was born on 18 March 1996 in San Diego, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Luck (2022), Yellow Rose (2019) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). She has been married to Reeve Carney since 27 October 2025. She was previously married to Leo Roberts.