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Viola Davis
5 FOLLOWERS • 80 CREDITS • AUG 11, 1965 • 59
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Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊlə/ vy-OH-lə; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century (2020). Davis received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025. 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). 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). 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Viola Davis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Overview
Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊlə/ vy-OH-lə; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century (2020). Davis received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025. 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). 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). 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Viola Davis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
The Kelly Clarkson Show
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Scandal
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Oscars
The Graham Norton Show
Without a Trace
Tony Awards
The Practice
Brothers and Sisters
CBS News Sunday Morning
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Providence
Judging Amy
Hack
Sofia the First
Honest Trailers
The Problem with Jon Stewart
60 Minutes
Dear...
E! Live from the Red Carpet
Creature Commandos
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Number One on the Call Sheet
United States of Tara
Ocean's Eleven
Black Adam
Traffic
World Trade Center
Law Abiding Citizen
Out of Sight
Disturbia
City of Angels
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Madea Goes to Jail
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
The Suicide Squad
Traveler
Eat Pray Love
Suicide Squad
Trust
Far from Heaven
Air
Children of Blood and Bone
Blackhat
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Ender's Game
Beautiful Creatures
Knight and Day
Solaris
Prisoners
Century City
Third Watch
The Pentagon Wars
Kung Fu Panda 4
The Help
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm
Peacemaker
The Unforgivable
Troop Zero
Fences
How to Get Away with Murder
The Woman King
Widows
G20
The First Lady
Waller
Production Credits
How to Get Away with Murder
The First Lady
Troop Zero
Silver Dollar Road
Number One on the Call Sheet
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm
G20
The Woman King
Rise of the Empress
Waller
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