"THIS IS ME" - KEALA SETTLE

Keala Settle is the breakout star of the upcoming musical hit The Greatest Showman - and she didn't even want the part!  

In the video above she talks about how she reacted when Director Michael Gracey told her she was to take the lead solo on the song and they show a clip of her singing it to the Producers who were deciding whether the film would be greenlit or not.

The singer and actress has Maori heritage, with family still living here in New Zealand. But she was raised in Hawaii, also has Pacific Island, British and American heritage, went to school in Utah and has been performing on Broadway since 2011.

All this is to say - as she hilariously puts it: "I have a lot of cultures within me - I'm basically chop suey".

But Settle's mixed background made her unable to "fit in" as a child which led to a host of insecurities – insecurities which nearly saw her lose out on the Greatest Showman role.

Read the full NZ Herald article here 

And enjoy these performances of her singing "This is Me" at the 'Ellen' show & on the 'Graham Norton' show!