Brenda Braxton
Broadway Actress and CEO/Founder of PAUSE by BBRAXTON
Brenda Braxton is a Tony Award-nominated, Grammy Award-winning actress, director, producer, and entrepreneur whose distinguished career has spanned more than four decades across Broadway, television, and business.
A celebrated Broadway veteran, Braxton has appeared in some of American musical theater’s most iconic productions, including Dreamgirls, Cats, Legs Diamond, Jelly’s Last Jam, Smokey Joe’s Café, and Chicago. Her acclaimed performance in Smokey Joe’s Café earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, and she is a Grammy Award winner as part of the production’s celebrated cast recording. She is perhaps best known to generations of Broadway audiences for her powerhouse portrayal of Velma Kelly in Chicago, a role she performed for many years.
Her work extends beyond the Broadway stage to television. Braxton appeared in Nurse Jackie and Smash and had a recurring role as Madeline Gilford on The Good Fight, bringing the same depth, presence, and versatility to the screen that have defined her theatrical career.
Beyond entertainment, Braxton is an accomplished entrepreneur. She founded BBRAXTON Exceptional Grooming for Exceptional Men, an upscale men’s grooming business in Harlem. Today, she is the founder and CEO of PAUSE by BBRAXTON™, a lifestyle and wellness brand dedicated to bringing joy, confidence, and possibility to women navigating perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.
Her expanding PAUSE platform includes On PAUSE: Kitchen Conversations, a lifestyle series bringing together food, friendship, wellness, and candid conversations about midlife, along with evolving beauty, travel, wellness, and lifestyle concepts created for women of a seasoned age.
From Broadway stages and television screens to entrepreneurship, Brenda Braxton continues to build a legacy rooted in creativity, reinvention, and possibility—proving that a remarkable career doesn’t have to have just one act.
