Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled with the variety and breadth of her talent as an actress and a performer. Audra McDonald, winner of seven Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was selected as one the Times magazine's 100 Most Influential People. President Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -the highest honor in America for achievements in this field. A dazzling soprano with an extraordinary talent of telling the truth in a dramatic manner her voice is at home in Broadway and on the opera scene as she is in her film and TV role. Apart from her theater job, she is also pursuing many facets of her career, including music producer and concert artist. She performs regularly in the best venues of the world. McDonald was born to a family with a strong musical background in Fresno, CA. She was a classical singer who received instruction from The Juilliard School of New York. A year following her graduation from Juilliard, McDonald took home the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in musical" for her performance in Carousel. The next four-year period she won two additional Tony Awards as a featured actor for her performances on Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998) that gave her the total 3 Tony Awards at the age of only 30. In 2004 she won her fourth Tony starring alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and In 2012, she was awarded her fifth--and her first for the category of leading actress for her title role performance for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she made Broadway history, becoming an official Tony Awards most decorated performer when she won six awards for her performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role which also served as the basis for her Olivier Award nomination 2017 debut performance in the London's West End. Also, she broke the record of most award wins by an actor. McDonald's other theater credits includes The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked Twelfth Night (2009), which was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut show, 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) and Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald's first appearance as a dramatic television actor was with the winner of the Peabody Award on the CBS series Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' First 100 years. In the following years, she co-starred with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber on the well-received 1999 Disney/ABC television remake of Annie and in 2000 she played a regular role on NBC's popular series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald earned her first Emmy for her role on the HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003 she was back on television but this time on Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., with Josh Brolin. Beginning in 2006 she was part of the cast of the The Bedford Diaries on the WB. The Bedford Diaries and over the following season, she played been a frequent guest on the NBC TV show Kidnapped. In the year 2016 McDonald received a nomination for a fourth Emmy Award for her role in HBO's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, a special film. The actress starred with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama produced by Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. McDonald initially played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS drama, a legal-themed crime thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In the year 2018, she reprised that role in The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a series regular. Her performance received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She is a guest star on Julian Fellowes's historical drama The Gilded Age.