Talent agency drops stage actress after past homophobic tweets resurface
Seyi Omooba was cast to play Celie in 'The Color Purple' but was dropped from the production
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
A talent agency has dropped an actress after past homophobic tweets resurfaced.
Seyi Omooba was cast to star in a stage production The Color Purple, which follows Celie who is an abuse survivor who learns to be independent after meeting Shug, a woman who she has an intimate and sexual relationship with.
However, Omooba – who was set to star as Celie in the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre production – was dropped after Hamilton star Aaron Lee shared a screenshot to Twitter where the actress said she doesn’t believe being gay is right.
@Seyiomooba Do you still stand by this post? Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/GK2xbzZYgy
— Aaron Lee Lambert (@aleelambert) March 15, 2019
And now, the talent agency Global Artists is no longer listing Omooba as a client following the row.
According to The Stage, the agency represented the actress and had a page dedicated to her on the website.
But following the homophobic tweets – which were posted in 2014 – Global Artists have removed the page as well as a post announcing she had been cast in the production.