Cynthia Erivo made Oscar history on Thursday morning with her Best Actress bid for Wicked. She is now only the second Black female performer to receive multiple bids in this category, after Viola Davis.

Erivo plays Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, in director Jon M. Chu‘s big-budget adaptation of the beloved Broadway stage musical. Wicked actually marks her second Best Actress mention after Harriet (2019), for which she also earned a Best Song bid for “Stand Up” (cowritten with Joshuah Brian Campbell). Wicked received 10 Oscar nominations this year, including for Erivo’s supporting co-star Ariana Grande.

Davis was the first to accomplish such a feat, thanks to her double Best Actress Oscar bids for The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). While she lost both of those contests, she did win the Best Supporting Actress prize for Fences (2016); she also had a prior bid in that...