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Viola Davis
5 FOLLOWERS • 83 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
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Golden Globe Awards
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Scandal
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Graham Norton Show
Without a Trace
The Oscars
Tony Awards
The Practice
The Grammys
Brothers and Sisters
CBS News Sunday Morning
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Third Watch
Providence
Judging Amy
Hack
Sofia the First
Peacemaker
Honest Trailers
The Problem with Jon Stewart
60 Minutes
Dear...
E! Live from the Red Carpet
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Number One on the Call Sheet
United States of Tara
Ocean's Eleven
Black Adam
Traffic
Law Abiding Citizen
World Trade Center
Out of Sight
Creature Commandos
City of Angels
Disturbia
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
Air
Trust
Far from Heaven
Children of Blood and Bone
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Knight and Day
Beautiful Creatures
Blackhat
Ender's Game
Solaris
Century City
Prisoners
The Pentagon Wars
Kung Fu Panda 4
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm
Troop Zero
Fences
The Unforgivable
The Help
The Woman King
The First Lady
Waller
How to Get Away with Murder
Widows
G20
Production Credits
Troop Zero
Number One on the Call Sheet
The Woman King
The First Lady
Rise of the Empress
G20
Silver Dollar Road
Waller
How to Get Away with Murder
The Fighting Shirley Chisholm
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