Audra Mc Donald

Audra's versatility and breadth as a performer is second to none. Audra has received six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award. The winner of a record-breaking seven Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award in 2015 she was selected as one of Time magazine's top 100 influential people and received the National Medal of Arts, America's highest honor for achievement in the field--from the President Barack Obama. Due to her beautiful tone, and unbeatable ability of telling compelling stories, she has found success in Broadway as well as at the opera and on television and film. She has a successful career as a recording artist and concert performer and regularly performs at some of the most prestigious performances around the world. McDonald is a native of California, born in Fresno California to a music family, received her training in classical singing at New York's Juilliard School. The year 1994 was the year following her graduation from Juilliard School, McDonald was awarded the Tony Award for "Best Performance of a Leading Actress Musical" for Carousel. Following four years of being in the Broadway premieres of Master Class by Terrence M. McNally (1996) and Ragtime (1998), she was awarded two more Tony Awards. In 2004, she took home her fourth Tony starring alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she won her fifth--and her first for the category of leading actress for her performance as the title character as the title character in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. As the Tony Awards' most decorated actor, she managed to make Broadway history when she received her sixth Tony Award for playing Billie Holiday as Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill. This performance also served as the basis for her Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. In addition to setting a record to win the most awards for acting performance, she also became the first to have won the four categories of acting. Her theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (99) Henry IV (2007) 110 in the Shade (2008) Twelfth (2009), which was the Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park premiere Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical sensation of 1921 & All That Followed (2017) Frankie & Johnny in Clair de Lune (2018) as well as Ohio State Murders 2023. McDonald was introduced to the TV audience as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters first 100 years. After starring with Kathy Bates, Victor Garber and others in the famous Disney/ABC version of Annie in 1999, McDonald had an recurring role on the NBC show Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald, who received an Emmy Award nomination for 1999, for her role as a character in an HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize-winning film Wit which was written and performed by Emma Thompson, made her return with the company in 2003 to star in the drama about politics Mister Sterling. The film was produced by Emmy Award-winning Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries, a WB TV show, debuted in the year 2006. McDonald then appeared as a recurring part on NBC's Kidnapped within the next year. McDonald's character in HBO film Lady Day At Emerson Bar & Grill received her a four-time Emmy nomination in 2016. McDonald starred along with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama co-produced through Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. McDonald first played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS Legal thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In 2018, she recast that role in The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. The performance earned her three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She appears as a special character on HBO's The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.