Audra Mc Donald

Audra is a singular artist with regard to the scope and variety of her talent as a performer and songwriter. Her record-breaking success includes six Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and the Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among Time magazine's 100 most influential people and received the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for achievement in the arts--from the president Barack Obama. She is equally at home on television, film and Broadway. Her stunning soprano makes her a natural on the stage. As well as her stage work, she maintains a major career as a recording performer who regularly appears at world's foremost venues. McDonald was born in Fresno California to a music family, began the classical vocal training she received in New York's Juilliard School. After graduating, McDonald received her Tony Award Best Performance for the Lead Actress of a Musical for her performance in Carousel for Lincoln Center Theater. In the four following years, she received two more Tony Awards as a featured actor for her performances in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). She has a total number of Tony Awards is unprecedented at three before age 30. In 2004, she was nominated to win her 4th Tony Award, starring in A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Diddy Combs. And in 2012, her fifth Tony and first award in the category Leading Actress were won by her role as the titular character in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. She created Broadway history in 2014 when she became the most decorated Tony Award performer. The role she played as Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill, the role which was also the catalyst for her Olivier Award nominated debut on London's West End in 2017, was her six award. As well as recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor as well as becoming the first actor to be awarded honors in all four acting categories. McDonald has also appeared in The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004), 110 In The Shade (2007 Twelfth night (2009) and Shuffle Along: The Making of the Musical Shock of 1921 and Everything That Followed (2016). She also made her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut on Twelfth night (2009). McDonald was introduced to the public via television as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters first 100 years. In 1999, she costarred alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the television adaptation of Disney/ABC of Annie. In 2000, she appeared as a recurring on NBC's popular series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. Following her first Emmy award for her performance in the HBO film version of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit written by Mike Nichols and starring Emma Thompson McDonald returned to network television in 2003 in the political drama Mister Sterling, produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. and starring Josh Brolin. The Bedford Diaries, a WB TV show, debuted in 2006. She then had an recurring role on NBC's Kidnapped in the year following. McDonald was nominated for a Fourth Emmy in 2016 for her part in HBO's movie called Lady Day, at Emerson's Bar and Grill. The Bite was a six episode drama about pandemics produced through Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald was first seen as 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 her role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a series regular. She received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. The actress is currently an actor in Julian Fellowes' period drama The Gilded Age.