Viola Davis

For other people named Viola Davis, see Viola Davis (disambiguation).

Viola Davis
Davis in 2023
Born (1965-08-11) August 11, 1965 (age 59)
St. Matthews, South Carolina, U.S.
Education
Occupations
  • Actress
  • producer
Years active1988–present
WorksFull list
Spouse
Julius Tennon
​
(m. 2003)​
Children1
RelativesMike Colter (second cousin)
AwardsFull list

Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊlə/ vy-OH-lə; born August 11, 1965)[1] is an American actress and film producer. Known for her work across screen and stage, her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT.[a] Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017.[2][3] In 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.[4][5]

A graduate of Juilliard, Davis began her career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, appearing in small stage productions. She made her Broadway debut in the August Wilson play Seven Guitars (1996) for which she earned her first Tony nomination. She would later win two Tony Awards, both for Wilson plays. Her first win was for Best Featured Actress in a Play playing the titular character Tonya, a woman grappling with trauma and loss in King Hedley II (2001), followed by her second win for Best Actress in a Play playing Rose Maxson, a working class mother in Fences (2010).[6]

She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for reprising her role in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences. She was Oscar-nominated for playing a complex mother in Doubt (2008), a 1960s housemaid in The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). On television, she became the first black actress to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020).[b] Davis joined the DCEU playing Amanda Waller starting with Suicide Squad (2016). She has also starred in the crime drama Widows (2018), and historical action film The Woman King (2022).

Davis and her husband are founders of the production company JuVee Productions, and she is also widely recognized for her advocacy and support for human rights and women of color. She became a L'Oréal Paris ambassador in 2019. The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me won her the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording.

  1. ^ Viola Davis reveals a director repeatedly called her by his maid's name!. Avi Jain Industry. May 20, 2022. Event occurs at 00:44. Retrieved May 12, 2024 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time. April 18, 2012. Archived from the original on April 22, 2012.
  3. ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in the World: Viola Davis". Time. Archived from the original on April 20, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  4. ^ "Viola Davis Just Got A Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame". The Huffington Post. December 21, 2016. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  5. ^ Dargis, Manohla; Scott, A. O. (November 25, 2020). "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  6. ^ Boroff, Philip (June 14, 2010). "Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, 'Memphis,' Win Top Tony Awards". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2012.


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