She later made her Broadway debut playing Celie, a woman suffering abuse in the Deep South, in the musical revival of The Color Purple from 2015 to 2017.

[7] Her mother Edith was 15 years old when the Nigerian Civil War broke out, with Erivo saying that "she's not necessarily a refugee, but [...] her home was ravaged, and they were on the run to find safety.

[17] On Sunday, 9 December 2012, Cynthia appeared in Alexander S. Bermange's and Stephen Clark's Living Every Day, which was performed as part of The 24 Hour Musicals Celebrity Gala at the Old Vic in London’s West End.

[7] Erivo originated the role of Chenice in the West End musical I Can't Sing!,[21] which opened at the London Palladium on 26 March 2014, garnering mixed reviews.

[23][24] Erivo starred in the European premiere of Dessa Rose at London's Trafalgar Studios from July to August 2014, for which she was nominated as Best Leading Actress in a musical at the 2015 BroadwayWorld UK Awards.

[25] She made her Broadway debut in the 2015 revival transfer of the Menier Chocolate Factory production of The Color Purple,[26] reprising her role as Celie Harris alongside American actresses Jennifer Hudson as Shug Avery and Danielle Brooks as Sofia.

[30] Erivo starred as Cathy alongside Joshua Henry in a one-night benefit concert performance of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years on 12 September 2016.

[31] In February 2017, at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Erivo performed "God Only Knows" alongside John Legend, as a tribute to musicians who had died over the past year.

[32] In March 2017, Erivo and the cast of The Color Purple were nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for their performance on NBC's The Today Show in May 2016.

In November 2017, she appeared on the charity benefit Night of Too Many Stars, hosted by Jon Stewart, where she performed a duet with frequent contributor Jodi DiPiazza of the Andra Day hit "Rise Up" they were accompanied by Questlove and The Roots.

[37] In his review of the film for The Atlantic, David Sims highlighted Erivo's "incredible work" in portraying her character's dramatic transformation.

[38] In 2019, Erivo produced and starred in the scripted science fiction thriller podcast Carrier, voicing the lead role of Raylene Watts, a long-haul truck driver transporting a trailer with "disturbing, mysterious contents".

[43] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Erivo "is a powerful physical presence in the title role" adding that "[she] hits all the requisite notes of flintiness and selfless bravery born of suffering, determination and rage".

[47] In 2020, Erivo starred as investigator Holly Gibney in the HBO miniseries The Outsider, a television adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name.

[50][51] She appeared in the science fiction film Chaos Walking, based on Patrick Ness' novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was released on 5 March 2021.

[59] That same year she performed a medley of Stephen Sondheim songs as part of the In Memoriam segment at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards alongside Rachel Zegler, Leslie Odom Jr. and Ben Platt.

[12] The following year she played Petra, a bold and flirtatious maid, in the Lincoln Center concert production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music at David Geffen Hall.