Stephanie Dorthea Mills (March 25, 1957) is an actress and singer from New York who played Dorothy in the 1975 Broadway production of The Wiz.
At a young age she joined her church choir. She started her career at age 9 when she starred in the musical Maggie Flynn. She won many amateur nights at the Apollo Theatre and soon became an opening act for the Isley Brothers. In 1973, Mills was signed to Paramount records by Michael Barbiero, and her first single "I Knew It Was Love" was released. Mills was later signed to Motown. Her first two albums there failed to produce a hit, and Mills left the label in 1976.
Mills's career took a rise when she portrayed Dorothy in the seven-time Tony Award winning Broadway musical The Wiz, an African-American adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The song "Home" was first performed by Mills in the stage production and would be covered later by Diana Ross for the movie adaptation three years later. The song was Stephanie's would become her signature tune for years, and would be covered later various artists included Ross and by Whitney Houston on her TV debut.
Mills would go on to reprise the role twice in 1984 and 1993.
At this time she was dating Michael Jackson who later played the Scarecrow in the film adaptation. She later broke up with Jackson and became just friends and nothing less. She even had a song called " He's out of my life" to the female version of his song " She's out of my life".
Commercial success in the music industry remained elusive until 1979, when she signed to the 20th Century Fox Records label. There, Mills found her niche in mainly disco music, recording songs such as "Put Your Body In It", "You Can Get Over", and "What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'".
The resulting album, What Cha' Gonna Do with My Lovin', was Mills' first gold record and the first major hit for the James Mtume-Reggie Lucas production team. She quickly followed the success with 1980's Sweet Sensation, which featured Mills' hit "Never Knew Love Like This Before". The single became a #12 R&B and #6 Pop hit in 1980, as well as reaching #4 in the UK Singles Chart. 1981's Stephanie featured a top hit for her and Teddy Pendergrass entitled "Two Hearts"
In 2015, she portrayed Aunt Em in NBC's The Wiz Live! In honor of her portraying Dorothy forty years prior
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