Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald stands out in her breadth of talent and versatility as an actor and singer. She was the recipient of a record-breaking six Tony Awards (two Grammy Awards) and an Emmy Award, McDonald was included in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people of the year 2015. She also received President Obama's National Medal of Arts for her work. A luminous soprano, and an unrivalled talent to tell the truth She is equally as at ease on Broadway as well as on the scene as she is in her role in television and film. Alongside performing on stage, she has built a career that is a major concert and record-making career. She frequently performs in the most prestigious venues. McDonald, who was born in Fresno California to a music family, began the classical vocal training she received at New York's Juilliard School. When she graduated, she won the first Tony Award as Best Performance by a Featured Actor in musical at the Lincoln Center Theater for Carousel (1994). Over the next four years, she received two more Tony Awards as a featured actress for her roles as a featured actress in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). The total of Tony Awards is unprecedented at three before age thirty. In 2004, she took home her fourth Tony starring alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012, she took home the fifth time and first time for the category of leading actress for her performance as the title character for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. She created Broadway history when she became the world's most decorated Tony Award performer. The role she played in the role of Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill, the role that also helped launch her Olivier Award nominated debut on London's West End in 2017, earned her six Tony Awards. Along with recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor she also became the first to win awards across all four categories. McDonald is also featured in The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004) and 110 In the Shade (2007 Twelfth night (2009) and Shuffle Along Shuffle Along: the Making of the Musical Shock of 1921 and All That Followed (2016). She also made her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut in Twelfth night (2009). McDonald made her television debut in the award-winning Peabody Award winning CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters's First 100 years. The actress then starred alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the lauded 1999 remake by ABC and Disney of Annie as well as in 2000, she played a regular role in NBC's smash series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's Emmy nominated performance as Emma Thompson in Mike Nichols' HBO film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Wit was written by Mike Nichols. McDonald's return to television networks began in 2003 as she appeared alongside Josh Brolin in Mister Sterling. Early in 2006, she joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The next year she was a recurring actor on NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald's role in HBO film Lady Day At Emerson Bar and Grill earned her four times an Emmy nomination in 2016. The following year, McDonald was a co-star in a telecast with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale as part of The Bite, a pandemic film produced by Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios. McDonald initially played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS legal thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In the year 2018, she returned to that role in The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. The performance earned her three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She is currently appearing as a guest on Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age, which airs on HBO.