Audra Mc Donald

The range and diversity of Audra's work as an artist is unmatched. Audra has received the Tony Awards six times, as well as two Grammy Awards, as well as an Emmy Award. As the winner of a record-breaking seven Tony Awards (two Grammy Awards) and an Emmy Award, McDonald was listed in Time magazine's list of 100 influential people in 2015. She also received President Obama's National Medal of Arts for her work. She's equally comfortable in television, film and Broadway. The luminous tone of her voice is a perfect fit for the stage. As well as her stage work, McDonald has established a successful career which has a substantial concert and record-making career. She frequently performs in world-class performances. McDonald was raised within Fresno California by her musical parents. She studied classical music at the Juilliard School, New York. After graduating, she won the very first Tony Award for Best Performance of a Featured Actress the Musical Carousel at the Lincoln Center Theater (1994). The following four years, she won two more Tony Awards for the category of a featured actress. She was in Broadway premier productions of Terrence McNally's musical Ragtime and Terrence McNally's production of Master Class in 1996. This was an incredible number of Tony Awards by the time she turned 30. In 2004, she was nominated for her fourth Tony Award, starring in A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Diddy Combs. And in 2012, her 5th Tony and her first nomination for the category of Leading Actress was won for her performance as the titular character in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. She made Broadway history in 2014 when she became the most decorated Tony Award performer. Her portrayal as Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill as well as the role which also served to launch her Olivier Award nominated debut on London's West End in 2017, was her six award. First actor recognized in all four acting categories, McDonald also set a record for the amount of awards an actor has won. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked the release of her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, the show Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical Sensation in 1921 as well as All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2019) and Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald was first seen on television in the award-winning Peabody Award winning CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters's First Hundred Years. In the following years, she starred alongside Kathy Bates, Victor Garber and others in the popular Disney/ABC remake of Annie in 1999, McDonald was a recurring character in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald, who was awarded an Emmy Award nomination for 1999 for her work as a character in an HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit which was written and performed by Emma Thompson, made her return on the network's air in 2003 for the political drama Mister Sterling. The film was produced by Emmy Award-winning Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries on the WB at the beginning of 2006, and Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald's character in HBO production Lady Day At Emerson Bar Restaurant earned her four times an Emmy nomination in 2016. The following year, McDonald was a co-star with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale as part of The Bite, a pandemic drama that was co-produced between Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios. Having first appeared as U.S. attorney Liz Lawrence in 2009 on CBS's legal drama The Good Wife in 2018 McDonald returned to the role (now known as Liz Reddick) as a season-long regular on The Good Fight on Paramount+ with the three Critics Choice Award nominations for her role. In the present, she is guest on Julian Fellowes' historic film The Gilded Age.