Viola Davis BIOGRAPHY

American actress and producer Viola Davis (/vaol./; born August 11, 1965) hails from the United States. In addition to being one of the few actors to have received an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT), Davis is also the only African-American to have accomplished the Triple Crown of Acting[1][a] and the third person to have achieved both statuses.[b] In 2012 and 2017, Time named her one of the world’s 100 most important people[2][3], and in 2020, The New York Times placed her ninth on its list of the finest actresses of the twenty-first century.[4][5]

Davis started her acting career in tiny theatre productions in Central Falls, Rhode Island. She received her degree from the Juilliard School in 1993, and in 1999, for her portrayal of Ruby McCollum in Everybody’s Ruby, she was honoured with an Obie Award. Before winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Tonya in the 2001 Broadway production of August Wilson’s King Hedley II, she had modest roles in late 1990s and early 2000s film and television projects. Her breakthrough came in the movie Doubt (2008), where she played a disturbed mother, earning her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. For her performance, Davis received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play

She portrayed attorney Annalise Keating in the ABC drama series How to Get Away with Murder from 2014 until 2020. For her role, she made history by becoming the first black actress to receive the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015.In the 2016 adaption of Fences, Davis returned to the Maxson character, [7] earning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[9][10] In the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Suicide Squad (2016), she portrayed Amanda Waller. She played Ma Rainey in the biopic Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2020, for which she was nominated for a fourth Academy Award, making her the black actress with the most nominations. She received more nominations for the BAFTA Best Actress award for her roles in Widows (2018) and The Woman King (2022).

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.^[12] She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2017 and became a L’Oréal Paris ambassador in 2019.^[13] The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me earned Davis a Grammy Award in 2023.^[14][15]

Davis was born on August 11, 1965, to parents Mae Alice Davis (née Logan) and Dan Davis in St. Matthews, South Carolina[16].[17][18][19] She was born on the Singleton Plantation’s land that belonged to her grandmother.[20] Her mother worked as a maid, a factory worker, and a homemaker, while her father trained horses.[21][22][23] She has a brother and four sisters, making her the second youngest of six kids.[24] Her parents relocated to Central Falls, Rhode Island, shortly after she was born with Davis and her two older siblings, leaving her other siblings with her grandparents.[19]

Davis is a second cousin of Luke Cage from Marvel Comics, played by actor Mike Colter.[28] Davis attended Central Falls High School, and she attributes some of her passion for stage acting and her interest in the arts to her time there.[29] She participated in the government TRIO Upward Bound and TRIO Student Support Services programmes while she was an adolescent.[30] Davis’s skill was discovered while he was a student at the Young People’s School for the Performing Arts in West Warwick, Rhode Island, by the program’s director, Bernard Masterson.[31]

After graduating from high school, Davis studied at Rhode Island College, majoring in theater and participating in the National Student Exchange before graduating in 1988. Next, she attended the Juilliard School for four years,^[22][23] and was a member of the school’s Drama Division “Group 22” (1989–93).^[32]

In 1992, Davis co-starred with Elizabeth McGovern in an off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It at the Delacorte Theatre as Denis. In 1996, Davis made her Broadway debut as the Vera alongside Keith David in the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars. The Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway hosted the play’s March 6 debut. She received favourable reviews for her work.[3

Davis continued acting off Broadway in various productions, and appeared in bit parts on television including episodes of NYPD Blue (1996), and New York Undercover (1996). She also appeared in the HBO television military comedy film, The Pentagon Wars (1996) starring Kelsey Grammer, and Cary Elwes. In 1998, she played a small role in Steven Soderbergh‘s crime comedy film Out of Sight (1999).

Throughout the early 2000s Davis appeared in numerous films, including Soderbergh’s Solaris and Traffic, as well as George Clooney‘s Syriana(2005), which Soderbergh produced

The lead role in Peter Nowalk’s pilot How to Get Away with Murder, which Shonda Rhimes executive produced for her ShondaLand production company, was cast on Davis in February 2014.[60] She plays the fierce criminal defence lawyer and lecturer Annalise Keating, who becomes involved in a murder plot alongside her students.[61][62][63] In September 2014, the series premiered.[64] For her work in How to Get Away with Murder, Davis won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in September 2015, making her the first African-American to do so.[65][66]

In June 2003, Davis wed the actor Julius Tennon.[121] The couple adopted a baby girl called Genesis in 2011. In addition, Davis is the stepmother of Tennon’s two previous children.[122] Davis routinely attends services at the Oasis Church in Los Angeles since he is a Christian.[123][124]

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