Biography
Viola Davis (born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of numerous accolades, Davis is one of the few performers to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT); additionally, she is the sole African-American to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting as well as the third person to achieve both statuses. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Davis began her career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, appearing in small stage productions. After graduating from the Juilliard School in 1993, she won an Obie Award in 1999 for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody's Ruby. She played minor roles in film and television in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before earning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in the 2001 Broadway production of August Wilson's King Hedley II. Her film breakthrough came with her role as a troubled mother in the drama Doubt (2008), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Davis won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Rose Maxson in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences.
For starring as a 1960s housemaid in the comedy-drama The Help (2011), Davis received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. From 2014 to 2020, she played lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC drama series How to Get Away with Murder, for which she became the first black actress to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. In 2016, Davis reprised the role of Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She played Amanda Waller in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Suicide Squad (2016). In 2020, she portrayed Ma Rainey in the biopic Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for which she received a fourth Academy Award nomination, becoming the most-Oscar-nominated black actress. Her performances in Widows (2018) and The Woman King (2022) earned her further nominations for the BAFTA Best Actress Award, making her the most-BAFTA-nominated black actress.
Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, are founders of a production company, JuVee Productions. Davis is also widely recognized for her advocacy and support of human rights and equal rights for women and women of color. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017 and became a L'Oréal Paris ambassador in 2019. The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me earned Davis a Grammy Award in 2023.
Filmography
all 131
Movies 85
TV Shows 46
self 28
Producer 6
Narrator 3
Voice 1
Director 1
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2024)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Silver Dollar Road (2023)
Air (2023)
Black Adam (2022)
The Woman King (2022)
The Jennifer Hudson Show (2022)
Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event (2022)
The First Lady (2022)
Peacemaker (2022)
The Unforgivable (2021)
The Problem With Jon Stewart (2021)
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Chadwick Boseman: Portrait of an Artist (2021)
C ce soir, le débat (2021)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Legacy Brought to Screen (2020)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Dear... (2020)
Celebrity IOU (2020)
Giving Voice (2020)
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times" (2019)
On Broadway (2019)
In a Man's World (2019)
Emanuel (2019)
A Touch of Sugar (2019)
And the Winners Are! (2019)
Troop Zero (2019)
Widows (2018)
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal (2018)
The Last Defense (2018)
Night Shift (2017)
Fences (2016)
Suicide Squad (2016)
Custody (2016)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015)
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter (2015)
Lila & Eve (2015)
Hot Ones (2015)
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (2015)
Blackhat (2015)
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors (2014)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2014)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)
How to Get Away with Murder (2014)
Get on Up (2014)
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (2014)
Ender's Game (2013)
Prisoners (2013)
Love, Marilyn (2013)
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
Won't Back Down (2012)
Honest Trailers (2012)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Touch of Evil (2011)
The Help (2011)
A Poem Is... (2011)
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
Trust (2010)
Eat Pray Love (2010)
Knight and Day (2010)
Beyond All Boundaries (2009)
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (2009)
State of Play (2009)
Doubt: Stage to Screen (2009)
Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
United States of Tara (2009)
Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
Terra Incognita: Making the Andromeda Strain (2008)
The Andromeda Strain (2008)
Doubt (2008)
Jesse Stone: Sea Change (2007)
Traveler (2007)
Disturbia (2007)
The Graham Norton Show (2007)
The Architect (2006)
Brothers and Sisters (2006)
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006)
World Trade Center (2006)
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006)
Jesse Stone: Night Passage (2006)
Syriana (2005)
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
Threshold (2005)
Stone Cold (2005)
Century City (2004)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003)
Antwone Fisher (2002)
Solaris (2002)
Far from Heaven (2002)
Hack (2002)
Without a Trace (2002)
E! Live from the Red Carpet (2002)
Kate & Leopold (2001)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001)
The Shrink Is In (2001)
Amy & Isabelle (2001)
The Division (2001)
Traffic (2000)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
City of Angels (2000)
Third Watch (1999)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
Judging Amy (1999)
Providence (1999)
Grace & Glorie (1998)
Out of Sight (1998)
The Pentagon Wars (1998)
Miss Apprehension and Squirt (1998)
The View (1997)
The Practice (1997)
The Substance of Fire (1996)
NYPD Blue (1993)
60 Minutes (1968)
Tony Awards (1956)
The Oscars (1953)
Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
Waller
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Mfinda
Creature Commandos
G20
Operation Othello
I Almost Forgot About You
Small Great Things
Two Butterflies
Fort Pit
Ratings
Gallery
Information
Known ForActing
GenderFemale
Birthday1965-08-11 (58 years old)
Birth PlaceSt. Matthews, United States of America
SpouseJulius Tennon
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsВиола Дэвис, 바이올라 데이비스, ヴィオラ・デイヴィス, ვიოლა დევისი
Awardsstar on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album, Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, Theatre World Award, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Time 100, Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Audie Award for Narration by the Author, Crystal Award
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
- Viola Davis
- Filmography
- Information
- Related Persons