Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is unique in her breadth of talent and her versatility as an actor and singer. Audra McDonald, winner of Six Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was named as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. The president Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -the nation's most prestigious award to recognize achievements in the field. Because of her soprano's luminous tone and her unrivaled ability of telling dramatic tales, she has found success both on Broadway and at the opera as well as in both film and television. She is a renowned performer as a recording artist and concert performer performing regularly in several of the most famous venues around the globe. McDonald is a native of California, born in Fresno California to a music family, received the classical vocal training she received at the New York's Juilliard School. After graduating, she won the first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in an Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). The following four years she received two more Tony Awards under the featured actress category. These were for her Broadway performance in Terrence McGally's productions Master Class and Ragtime. In 2004, she won her 4th Tony by starring as a lead in A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Diddy Combs. Then in 2013, she took home her 5th Tony as well as her 1st in the Leading actress category. The Tony Awards' most decorated performer, she had the chance to make Broadway history when she was awarded the sixth Tony Award the role of Billie Holiday as Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This role also provided the platform for the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. Aside from setting a record in the competition for winning the most Tony Awards by acting performance, she also became the first woman to be awarded the four categories of acting. McDonald's theater credits also include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (99) Henry IV (2007) 110 in the Shade (2008) Twelfth (2009) The Twelfth, her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical sensation of 1921 & All That Followed (2017) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2018) as well as Ohio State Murders 2023. It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our Say The Delany Sisters First 100 Years that first introduced McDonald to the television audience as a dramatic actor. In the following years, she starred alongside Kathy Bates, Victor Garber and other actors in the highly famous Disney/ABC version of Annie in 1999, McDonald appeared as been a regular character on the network's Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald, who was awarded the Emmy Award nomination back in 1999 for her performance in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit which was written and performed by Emma Thompson, made her return on the network's air in 2003 for the drama about politics Mister Sterling. The film was created by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. Then, in the beginning of 2006, she joined the crew of WB's The Bedford Diaries and over the following season, she played the role of a regular on NBC's television series Kidnapped. McDonald received a fourth Emmy for her portrayal of Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill, which aired on HBO in the year 2016. The Bite will be a six-episode series about a pandemic that will be produced with Spectrum Originals, CBS Studios and Taylor Schilling in 2021. She starred in 2009 as she portrayed U.S. Attorney Liz Lawrence in CBS's legal drama The Good Wife. In the year 2018, McDonald took on the role of Liz Reddick as a regular on Paramount+'s The Good Fight. She was awarded three Critics Choice Award nods for the role. She guest stars on Julian Fellowes historical drama The Gilded Age.