Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the range and variety of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. Audra McDonald, winner of the prestigious six Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was listed as one of the Time magazine's 100 most influential people. The president Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -- America's highest honour for achievements in this field. A soprano with unmatched beauty, and an ability for dramatizing truth the roles she plays in Broadway as well as in opera have the same aplomb as those in films or on television. Apart from her theater job, she is also pursuing an active career as a musician and recording artist. She performs regularly in some of the top venues around the world. McDonald, who was born in Fresno California to a music family, completed the classical vocal training she received at New York's Juilliard School. A year after graduating she won the very debut Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in an Musical for Carousel at the Lincoln Center Theater (1994). The following four years, she received two additional Tony Awards as a featured actor in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). The total of Tony Awards is unprecedented at three prior to the age of 30. She won the fourth Tony for her performance in the role in which she was a co-star with Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun. When she was in 2012, she was a leading actress in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she won the fifth Tony and won the first prize in the lead actor category. The actress made Broadway historical records in 2014 as she became the highest popular Tony Award nominee. Her portrayal in the role of Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill as well as the role that also helped launch the career of her Olivier Award nominated debut on the London's West End in 2017, was her six award. Along with recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor she was also the first actor to be awarded awards in all four acting categories. McDonald was also seen in The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007 Twelfth night (2009) and the musical Shuffle Along: The Making of the Musical Shock of 1921 and All That Followed (2016). She was the first to make her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut with Twelfth night (2009). McDonald first made her television debut as a drama actor in her role on the Peabody Award winner CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. McDonald was later cast as a co-star alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the critically acclaimed 1999 Disney/ABC television remake of Annie and in 2000 she had a recurring role on NBC's hit 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 was in 2003, in which she co-starred with Josh Brolin in Mister Sterling. Then, in the beginning of 2006, she joined the cast of the The Bedford Diaries on the WB. The Bedford Diaries and over the following season, she played a recurring role on NBC's television series Kidnapped. McDonald's role in HBO film Lady Day At Emerson Bar and Grill earned the actress a fourth Emmy nomination in 2016. In 2021, she was a co-star alongside Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale as part of The Bite, a pandemic drama that was co-produced between Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios. McDonald appeared as U.S. prosecutor Liz Lawrence in the first episode of her role appeared on CBS's The Good Wife legal drama in 2009. It was her turn to reprise the role in the year 2018, playing season regular Liz Reddick in Paramount+'s The Good Fight. For her performance, McDonald received three Critics Choice Award nominations. She currently guest-stars in Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age on HBO.