Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unmatched in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both acting and singing. A record-breaking winner of Six Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and An Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among the top 100 influential people and received the National Medal of Arts--America's highest honor for achievement in this field -- from President Barack Obama. She is blessed with a beautiful soprano, and an unrivalled talent for dramatic truth-telling the actress is just as comfortable on Broadway as well as on the scene as she is in her film and TV role. Her professional career is a success performing and recording performing regularly in some of the most prestigious venues around the globe. McDonald lived in Fresno California, where she was raised by an extended family that included musicians. In the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. A year after graduating she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). Through the course of four years she received two additional Tony Awards in the featured actress category, for her roles in performances in the Broadway premier of Terrence McNally's production Master Class (1996) and the show Ragtime (1998) making an incredible total of three Tony Awards before the age of thirty. In 2004 she was in the running for her fourth Tony Award, starring in A Raisin in the Sun along with Sean Diddy Combs. And in 2012, her five year old daughter won her first Tony for her performance in the category of Leading Actress. In that performance, she portrayed the lead role as Porgy and Bess in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. The Tony Awards' most decorated actress, she was able to set Broadway history when she received the sixth Tony Award the role of Billie Holiday as Lady Day in the Emerson's Bar & Grill. This role also provided the platform to make the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. Not only did she set an all-time record for the amount of awards an actor earned, she was the first person ever to take home the four categories. McDonald has also appeared in The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004) The 110th Shade (2007 Twelfth night (2009) and the film Shuffle Along: Shuffle Along: Making of the Musical Shock that premiered in 1921 and everything That Followed (2016). The actress was the first to be awarded in every one of the acting categories. McDonald's first appearance as a dramatic TV actor came with the award-winning Peabody Award CBS show Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. After her role as a co-star with Kathy Bates, Victor Garber along with other stars in the well-received Disney/ABC remake of Annie at the end of 1999 McDonald had an recurring role in the network's Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald received her first Emmy for her performance on her role in the HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003, she made her return to television, this time in Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., starring Josh Brolin. Then, in the year 2006, McDonald joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The following year, she became in a regular role on NBC's Kidnapped. In the year 2016, McDonald was nominated for a fourth Emmy Award due to her performance on HBO's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, a film-special. The Bite is a drama featuring six episodes that are based on a pandemic, coproduced by Spectrum Originals & CBS Studios. She starred with Taylor Schilling & Steven Pasquale. In 2009, she was the U.S. Attorney Liz Lawrence on CBS's drama about lawyers The Good Wife. In 2018, McDonald returned to her role as Liz Reddick as a regular on Paramount's The Good Fight. She received three Critics Choice Award nods for the performance. She is currently in the role of a guest star on Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age on HBO.