Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is a standout in the breadth of her talent and versatility in her roles as a performer and singer. Her record-breaking success includes 6 Tony Awards two Grammy Awards as well as one Emmy Award in 2015 she was named one of Time magazine's top 100 influential people. She also received the National Medal of Arts, America's highest award for accomplishment in the field--from President Barack Obama. She is equally at home in film, television as well as Broadway. The luminous tone of her voice makes her a natural on the stage. Aside from her theater work McDonald has also established a successful career as an international recording and concert artist. A musically inclined family, McDonald grew up living in Fresno California and received her classical training in the New York's Juilliard School. The year 1994 was the year after she graduated from Juilliard School, McDonald was awarded the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in the Musical" for Carousel. The following four years, she received two more Tony Awards as a featured actor in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). Her total of Tony Awards is unprecedented at three prior to the age of 30. She won the fourth Tony for her role in the musical that she portrayed alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun. In 2012, while she was a leading actor in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she received five Tony and was awarded the first Tony Award in the best actor category. In her role as the Tony Awards' most decorated performer, she was able to set Broadway historical records when she won her sixth Tony Award for portraying Billie Holiday as Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This part also gave her the opportunity for the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. As well as recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor she was also the first person to receive awards for all four categories of acting. McDonald is also featured for other productions in the theatre such as The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV 2004 110 in the Shade (2006) Twelfth Nigh (2009) Twelfth Nigh (2009); it was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut show, Shuffle Along Or the Making of the Musical Sense of 1921, and all That Followed (16) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (192019) and Ohio State Murders (2023) McDonald was first seen on TV as a dramatic actor on the Peabody Award winner CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters' First 100 years. The year 1999 saw her starred along with Kathy Bates in ABC's acclaimed remake of Annie. In addition, she played a recurring part in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit in 2000. McDonald, who was awarded an Emmy Award nomination for 1999, for her role on the HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize-winning film Wit directed and starring Emma Thompson, made her return to the network in 2003 for the drama on politics Mister Sterling. The film was created by Emmy Award-winning Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. Beginning in 2006, she was part of the cast of the WB's The Bedford Diaries and over the following season, she played an recurring role in the television series of NBC, Kidnapped. McDonald got an fourth Emmy award for her performance in HBO's film special of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill in the year 2016. She also appeared in 2021 when she appeared with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale as part of The Bite, a pandemic drama that was co-produced between Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios. McDonald first played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS Legal action thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In 2018, she recast her role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. The performance earned her three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She currently guest-stars in Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age on HBO.