Finally, The Get Down has returned with new episodes on Netflix, finishing out Season 1. Not only does this mean fans will get to find out what happens to Zeke, Shaolin Fantastic, and Mylene, but new characters are making their big debut as well. Who plays Misty Holloway on The Get Down? Renée Elise Goldsberry is best known for playing Angelica Schuyler in the original cast of Hamilton on Broadway, but she has been working (no pun intended) on stage and screen for ages.
Fans of The Get Down know that Misty Holloway is Mylene Cruz's favorite singer. Her presence is known and her absence is felt in the early episodes, but in a good way. The larger than life disco diva is clearly building up for a big entrance. When she finally appears in Episode 10, it's well worth the wait.
"Renée is a Tony winner from Hamilton," says creator Baz Luhrmann in a statement to Bustle, "and she is a true triple threat. She inhabits the role of disco goddess Misty Holloway with star quality channeling Diana Ross and other divas of the era. It was a pleasure welcoming her to the world of The Get Down, and I know her many fans will love seeing her in the show.”
"I've played a wide range of diverse characters," Goldsberry says in an interview with Bustle, "and they are all powerful women." She notes that women like Angelica, the titular character in The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, and Quellcrist Falconer from Altered Carbon, "are all nobly fighting and sacrificing for someone they love. Misty Holloway, on the other hand, is only fighting for herself! And she's not pulling punches!"
Prior to Hamilton, Goldsberry started her Broadway career as a replacement for Mimi in Rent, then Nala in The Lion King. If you ever saw Rent: Filmed Live On Broadway, that was her in those iconic blue pants. In 2005, she also starred in the original cast of The Color Purple as Nettie. On the small screen, she played Geneva Pine on The Good Wife, Evangeline on Once Life to Live, a musical performer on Ally McBeal and countless other television roles.
That said, nothing is quite like disco glamour and glitz of The Get Down. Goldsberry's look is especially stunning, and she immediately steals the scene. It rocks that Mylene's hero is already ours. Hamilfans will be delighted, if not... dare I say it... totally satisfied.
