This Is...Susan Kelechi Watson

The This Is Us star leaned into the power of positive thinking to achieve her dreams. She shares how you can do it too— plus exclusive show info!

- Amy Spencer

EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS IS US, you’ve surely heard of it, thanks to the hordes of fans who became obsessed with the show overnight — and with tweeting about how hard each episode made them weep — when it debuted in 2016. The series orbits around the thirtysomething Pearson siblings (Sterling K. Brown, Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz) and their parents (Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia). But for many viewers, Beth, the strong, steady wife of Randall, is the clan’s shining star. Google “Beth is the best Pearson” for exhaustive lists of reasons, but in short, she’s the wisecracking relative always ready with a powerful pep talk that every family needs. Unsurprisingly, Susan Kelechi Watson, who admits to infusing the role with parts of her own life experience, is just as smart and funny as Beth.

Raised in New York City by Jamaican immigrant parents as one of six siblings, Susan, now 37, followed her acting aspirations through graduate school at New York University, where she met her future onscreen husband. “I’ve always been a fan of her work and admired her,” raves Sterling, who was two years ahead in school. “Sue is just cool people, cool like the other side of the pillow. So finally getting to do something together has been wonderful.” Another  fun fact: A scholarship she received to study Shakespeare at the University of Oxford was funded by Denzel Washington and Phylicia Rashad — who was recently cast as Beth’s mom! There are big developments in her silver screen career too. In January 2019, Premature, the first film she executive-produced, debuted at Sundance. This October she will appear in her first major feature film alongside Tom Hanks in the Fred Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.