Gooding plays the role of Nyota Uhura in the Paramount+ original series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022–present).

Gooding was inspired to become an actor when they watched their mother win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for The Color Purple in 2006 on TV.

[8] Throughout their high school experience, Gooding played various roles such as Carmen in the Rosetta LeNoire Musical Theatre Academy's production of Fame.

They originated one of the lead roles of the show, Frankie Healy: a 17-year-old Black, bisexual activist who was adopted into an affluent white family in a suburb in Connecticut.

[14] They also performed on Late Night with Seth Meyers,[15] Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest,[16] and Good Morning America.

[25] On September 24, 2021, Gooding announced that they would not be returning to Jagged Little Pill due to alleged transphobic and abusive treatment of the show's non-binary cast members.

Gooding has participated in a panel for normalizing consent and advocacy for sexual assault victims for the summer 2020 series, Transformation 2020: Popular Democracy Defined with co-star Kathryn Gallagher.