Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in her range and the versatility of her talent as an actress and a performer. In 2015, she won record-breaking six Tony Awards as well as two Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards. The actress was also identified in Time magazine among the 100 most influential people, and she was also given the National Medal of Arts - the most prestigious prize in America in recognition of artistic excellence and achievement - by the president Barack Obama. A soprano with unmatched beauty, and an ability to tell the truth in a dramatic way, her roles in Broadway or in the opera are as comfortable like those on film as well as on TV. In addition to her theatre work, she has many a career in recording and concert artist. She performs regularly in some of the top venues around the world. She was born into a musical family. McDonald was raised within Fresno California and received her singing training in the classical style at New York's Juilliard School. In 1994, just a few years after she graduated from Juilliard School, she won the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical" for her performance in Carousel. Over the next four years she won two more Tony Awards in the featured actress category, for her roles on the Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally's play Master Class (1996) and the Musical Ragtime (1998) which gave her an unprecedented total of three Tony Awards before the age of 30. In 2004, she received her 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. In 2012, while she was a lead actor in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she received her fifth Tony and was awarded the first prize in the lead actor category. As the Tony Awards' most decorated performer, she was able to create Broadway historical records when she won the sixth Tony Award playing Billie Holiday as Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This performance also served as the basis to make the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. In addition to setting the record for most competitive wins by an actor as well as becoming the first person to receive awards across all four categories. Other credits in the theater are The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked Twelfth Night (2009), which was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (2019) and Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald made her TV debut in the Peabody Award-winning CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters's First 100 Years. After that, in 1999, she costarred alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the television adaptation of Disney/ABC of Annie. In 2000, she was a regular role in NBC's well-known show Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's debut Emmy was awarded for her performance in the HBO movie adaptation of the The Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. Produced by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson in the leading role the actress was back on network television in 2003. She starred in Mister Sterling and produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. In 2006, McDonald appeared on WB's The Bedford Diaries. The next year she was an actor in NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald's role in HBO movie Lady Day At Emerson Bar Restaurant earned her a four-time Emmy nomination in 2016. The Bite was a six episode drama about pandemics produced by Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald initially played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in the CBS legal thriller The Good Wife, in the year 2009. In 2018, she recast that role in The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. Her performance received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. The actress is a featured guest in HBO's The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.