Audra Mc Donald

Audra's versatility and breadth as a performer is unparalleled. Audra has been awarded six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award. Her record-breaking success includes 6 Tony Awards two Grammy Awards as well as an Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among Time magazine's top 100 influential people. She also received the National Medal of Arts, America's most prestigious award for excellence in this field -- from the president Barack Obama. Because of her soprano's luminous tone and her unrivaled ability to tell dramatic stories her success has been evident in Broadway and at the opera and in both film and television. In addition to her theatre performances, she also has an active career as a singer and a concert artist. She performs regularly at the most prestigious venues in the world. She was born into a musical family. McDonald lived in Fresno California and received her classical training in New York's Juilliard School. In 1994, just a few years after she graduated from Juilliard School, she won the Tony Award for "Best Performance of a Leading Actress the Musical" for Carousel. The following four years she received two more Tony Awards under the featured actress category. They were awarded for her Broadway performance in Terrence McGally's productions Master Class and Ragtime. In 2004 she won her fourth Tony for her role as Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she received the fifth time and first time in the leading actress category in the role of her lead for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. One of the Tony Awards most-decorated performer in 2014 was Billie Holiday, who she performed on stage in Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill. It is identical to the role she performed in her 2017 West End London debut for in which she's been named for the Olivier Award. Aside from setting a record in the contest for winning the most awards by an actor, she was the first person to win each of the four categories for acting. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical Sensation in 1921 as well as All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2019) as well as Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald made her television debut with the award-winning Peabody Award-winning CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters's First 100 Years. The actress then starred with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the lauded 1999 remake by ABC and Disney of Annie and in 2000 she played a regular role on NBC's hit series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's Emmy-nominated performance of Emma Thompson on Mike Nichols' HBO film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Wit was written by Mike Nichols. McDonald's return to the network TV screen was in 2003, as she appeared alongside Josh Brolin in Mister Sterling. Early in 2006, McDonald appeared on WB's The Bedford Diaries. The next year, she appeared as a recurring actor on NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald received a nomination for a fourth Emmy in the year 2016 for her performance in HBO's film in the series Lady Day, at Emerson's Bar & Grill. The Bite is a drama featuring six episodes that are based on an epidemic, produced with Spectrum Originals & CBS Studios. The show featured her in the show with Taylor Schilling & Steven Pasquale. McDonald initially played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS Legal drama The Good Wife, in the year 2009. In the year 2018, she returned to the role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. Her performance received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. The actress is currently acting as a guest in Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age, which airs on HBO.